At the same time the scope of history and its auxiliary sciences becomes more clearly defined; the Ecole des Chartes produces some excellent palaeographers, as for instance Natalis de Wailly (_Elements de paleographie_, 1838), and L. Delisle (q.v.), who has also left traces of his profound researches in the most varied departments of medieval history (_Bibliographie des travaux de M. Leopold Delisle_, 1902); Anatole de Barthelemy made a study of coins and medals, Douet d'Arcq and G. Demay of seals. The works of Alexandre Lenoir (_Musee des monuments francais_, 1800-1822), of Arcisse de Caumont (_Histoire de l'architecture du moyen age_, 1837; _Abecedaire ou rudiment d'archeologie_, 1850), of A. Napoleon Didron (_Annales archeologiques_, 1844), of Jules Quicherat (_Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire_, published after his death, 1886), and the dictionaries of Viollet le Duc (_Dictionnaire raisonne de l'architecture francaise_, 1853-1868; _Dictionnaire du mobilier francais_, 1855) displayed to the best advantage one of the most brilliant sides of the French intellect, while other sciences, such as geology, anthropology, the comparative study of languages, religions and folk-lore, and political economy, continued to enlarge the horizon of history. The task of writing the general history of a country became more and more difficult, especially for one man, but the task was none the less undertaken by several historians, and by some of eminence. Francois Guizot treated of the _Histoire de la civilisation en France_ (1828-1830); Augustin Thierry after the _Recits des temps merovingiens_ (1840) published the _Monuments de l'histoire du tiers etat_ (1849-1856), the introduction to which was expanded into a book (1855); Charles Simonde de Sismondi produced a mediocre _Histoire des francais_ in 31 vols. (1821-1844), and Henri Martin a _Histoire de France_ in 16 vols. (1847-1854), now of small use except for the two or three last centuries of the _ancien regime_. Finally J. Michelet, in his _Histoire de France_ (17 vols., 1833-1856) and his _Histoire de la Revolution_ (7 vols., 1847-1853), aims at reviving the very soul of the nation's past.