Louis Ferdinand Alfred Maury (March 23, 1817 – February 11, 1892) was a French scholar and physician known for his early ideas on dream interpretation and the impact of external stimuli on dreams, predating Sigmund Freud.
Freud references Maury in “The Interpretation of Dreams,” and Sebastian Faulks mentions him in “Human Traces.”
Maury coined the term “hypnagogic hallucination” and reported a dream that inspired Salvador Dalí’s painting “Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening.”
He had a contemporary and contentious relationship with fellow dream researcher Hervey de Saint Denys.
Born in Meaux, Maury began working at the Bibliothèque Nationale in 1836, then moved to the Bibliothèque de l’Institut in 1844. He studied archaeology, languages, medicine, and law, producing many scholarly works.
Maury was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1857 and worked on research projects for Napoleon III.
His roles included librarian of the Tuileries (1860), professor at the Collège de France (1862), and director-general of the Imperial Archives (1868).
He used his influence to promote science and education, co-founding the École des Hautes Etudes with Victor Duruy. Maury retired and died in Paris four years later.
Bibliography: Maury wrote extensively, including:
- “Les Fées au Moyen Âge” and “Histoire des légendes pieuses au Moyen Âge” (1843, reprinted as “Croyances et légendes du Moyen Âge” in 1896)
- “Histoire des grands forts de la Gaule et de l’ancienne France” (1850, revised in 1867 as “Les Forts de la Gaule et de l’ancienne France”)
- “La Terre et l’homme” (1854)
- “Histoire des religions de la Grèce antique” (3 vols., 1857–1859)
- “La Magie et l’astrologie dans l’antiquité et dans le Moyen Âge” (1863)
- “Histoire de l’ancienne Académie des sciences” (1864)
- “Histoire de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres” (1865)
- Contributions to the Encyclopédie moderne (1846–1851) and other journals.
