Alfred Paul Victor Morel-Fatio (9 January 1850 in Strasbourg,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

– 10 October 1924 in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

) was the leading French Hispanist of his time, educated at

École des chartes École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Sav ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. From 1875 to 1880 he was attaché of the department of

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

s of the

Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

, during which period he prepared his excellent ''Catalogue des manuscrits espagnols et portugais de la Bibliothèque Nationale''. For the next five years he was

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

at the École supérieure des lettres at Algiers. In 1885 he returned to

to accept the chair of languages and literature of southern

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

in the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

. He became influential and known widely, and in 1894 he was Taylorian lecturer at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

. He was elected corresponding member of the Spanish Royal Academy of the Language, and was appointed a Knight Commander of the

Order of Charles III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III ( es, Real y Distinguida Orden Española de Carlos III, originally es, Real y Muy Distinguida Orden de Carlos III) was establ ...

, and in his own country became an officer of public instruction, a member of the

Institute of France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...

(1910), and a Knight of the Legion of Honor. After 1874 Morel-Fatio was a contributor to the ''Romania'', and after 1899 one of the directors of the ''Bulletin Hispanique''.

Select bibliography

* Translation of the ''Grammaire des langues romanes'' by

Friedrich Christian Diez Friedrich Christian Diez (15 March 179429 May 1876) was a German philologist. The two works on which his fame rests are the ''Grammar of the Romance Languages'' (published 1836–1844), and the ''Etymological Dictionary of the Romance Languages'' ...

(1874–76) * Edition of

Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (, ; ; 17 January 160025 May 1681) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, writer and knight of the Order of Santiago. He is known as one of the most distinguished Baroque ...

's ''Mágico prodigioso'' (1877) * ''L'Espagne au XVIe et au XVIIe siècle'' (1878) * ''Libro de los fechos et conquistas del principado de la Morea ... Chronique de Morée aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles'' (1885) * ''Vie de

Lazarillo de Tormes ''The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities'' ( es, La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades ) is a Spanish novella, published anonymously because of its anticlerical content. It was published s ...

; Études de l'Espagne'' (three volumes, 1888–1904; second edition of volumes i and ii, 1895 and 1906) * "El Libro de Alijandre," in ''Gesellschaft für romanische Literatur'', volume X (1906) * ''Recueil des instructions données aux ambassadeurs de France en Espagne. Historiographie de Charles-Quint'' (1913)

References

External links

* * * 1850 births 1924 deaths Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 19th-century French writers 20th-century French writers Academic staff of the Collège de France French biographers French Hispanists Spanish–French translators 20th-century biographers 20th-century French translators 19th-century French male writers 20th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers 19th-century French translators École Nationale des Chartes alumni French people of colonial Algeria {{France-translator-stub