DicoTopo
Available
Scientific Directors
- Olivier Canteaut (2010-)
- Sébastien Nadiras (2010-)
- Marie-José Gasse-Grandjean (2010-2018)
- Alain Guerreau (2010-2014)
- Nicolas Perreaux (2010-2015)
Description
Taken from the website (Accessed 2025-12-08):
The Topographical Dictionary of France is an indispensable tool for studying the history and early geography of French territory. Published in departmental volumes since 1860, it brings together hundreds of thousands of place names, collected in their historical and modern spellings from archival documents. This application provides access to the data gathered within this framework, in a format profoundly renewed thanks to the use of digital technologies.
The search capabilities within this data are now greatly enhanced. This offers the possibility of querying the entire collection, sorting and filtering the results obtained, querying all or part of a name, or even performing fuzzy searches, focusing on spellings similar to a name.
The use of digital technology also allowed for a partial updating of the data: while the online text remains that of the printed dictionaries, apart from limited corrections, each place has been located in relation to the administrative geography of 2011 – the date chosen because it predates the movement of municipal mergers launched by the laws reforming local authorities in 2010 and 2015 and the cantonal redistricting of 2014. A link to the official INSEE geographical code also offers the possibility of locating each municipality in the current administrative hierarchy.
Furthermore, digital processing has given the project a cartographic dimension that was lacking in printed dictionaries. Place names are now geolocated as much as possible. However, this geolocation is currently limited to the municipal level due to a lack of sufficiently precise data: all place names located within a municipality are therefore located at its geographic center. Despite this limitation, the current search tool now offers the possibility of quickly visualizing the results of a query on a map.
Finally, the data is accessible in JSON API 1.0 and Linked Places formats via an API and can be freely reused in web applications. Assigning each location a persistent identifier guarantees the conditions for this reuse and allows the Topographical Dictionary of France to be built as a geohistorical reference database.
This application is still under development. Its geographical coverage will be further expanded through the integration of new dictionaries or other types of sources, such as ecclesiastical registers, for departments not currently covered by a dictionary. New search functionalities will eventually be implemented, including sorting and filtering by date and type of location. Finally, the project team is working on improving geolocation at the sub-municipal level.