Jaume Marcet i Riba (1894-1963), baula poc coneguda de la geologia catalana

Abstract

Jaume Marcet i Riba (1894-1963), a poorly known Catalan geologist. Marcet graduated in 1916 from the University of Barcelona, where he also received his doctorate, under the guidance of professors Pardillo and San Miguel de la Cámara. He was an expert on the Fedorow method and until 1930 he showed concern for the problems of interest to petrologists, in particular the problems of systematics. In El método natural en Petrografia he devised creative proposals to determine the groups of genetically related igneous rocks with implications for systematics. These ideas guided the research of the rest of his career. Marcet collaborated with the pedagogical work of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya, and in this framework, he was decisive in the introduction of modern geography in Catalonia. During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, he was part of the editorial staff of the magazine Ciència from the beginning. He gave lectures and courses on geology in popular clubs (athenaeums) and hiking centers. Following the session of the International Geological Congress held in Spain in 1926, he embarked on publishing the work Géologie de la Méditerranée Occidentale, an international, multilingual work, focused on, and seen from the Catalan speaking Countries, a task that occupied him until at the end of the civil war. Under the Franco regime, from the position of Conservator of Paleontology at the Geology Museum of Barcelona (Museu Martorell), he carried out, in addition to the functions of his position, regional research, guided by the Stille’s ideas. Teaching complemented his career for much of his life. From 1917 until 1939, he worked as an assistant professor at the University of Barcelona and he was in charge of the practical teaching of Professor San Miguel de la Cámara. In 1932 he won a chair at an Institute of Secondary Education in Barcelona, Institut Maragall, where he developed his teaching activity until he passed away