Roger Hervé

Roger Hervé was a twentieth-century French cartographic historian and chief conservator at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. He specialized in the history and preservation of early maps.

His scholarship focused especially on sixteenth-century portolan charts. These are nautical maps centered on coastlines, ports, and sailing routes.

He served as chief conservator. That role combined the care of important collections with research into the maps and other historical documents held by the national library.

They preserve practical maritime knowledge about coastlines and ports from the age of European oceanic expansion. Studying them helps historians separate navigational information from the decorative and cosmological elements added by mapmakers.