Pierre Henri Larcher (12 October 1726 – 22 December 1812) was a French

classical scholar Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

and archaeologist.

Life

Born at

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

, and originally intended for the

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, he abandoned it for the classics. His (anonymous) translation of

Chariton Chariton of Aphrodisias ( grc-gre, Χαρίτων ὁ Ἀφροδισιεύς) was the author of an ancient Greek novel probably titled '' Callirhoe'' (based on the subscription in the sole surviving manuscript). However, it is regularly referred t ...

's ''

Callirhoe Callirrhoe (, grc, Καλλιρρόη; also Callirhoe) may refer to: * Callirhoe (mythology), several figures in Greek mythology, including: ** Callirrhoe (Oceanid), daughter of Oceanus and Tethys ** Callirrhoe (daughter of Achelous) * Callirrhoe ...

'' (1763) marked him as an excellent

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

scholar. His attack upon

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

's '' Philosophie de l'historie'' (published under the name of l'Abbé Bazin) created considerable interest at the time. His archaeological and mythological '' Memoire sur Venus'' (1775), which has been ranked with similar works of Heyne and Winckelmann, gained him admission to the

Academie des Inscriptions An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase th ...

(1778). After the imperial university was founded, he was appointed professor of

Greek literature Greek literature () dates back from the ancient Greek literature, beginning in 800 BC, to the modern Greek literature of today. Ancient Greek literature was written in an Ancient Greek dialect, literature ranges from the oldest surviving writte ...

(1809) with Boissonade as his assistant. Larcher's best work was his translation of

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

(1786, new ed. by L Humbert, 1880) on the preparation of which he had spent fifteen years. The translation itself, though correct, is dull, but the commentary (translated into English, London, 1829, new ed. 1844, by W. D. Cooley) dealing with historical, geographical and chronological questions, and enriched by a wealth of illustration from ancient and modern authors, is not without value.

Notes

References

* ; endnotes: ** Jean François Boissonade, ''Notice sur la vie et les ecrits de P. L.'' (1813) **

Friedrich August Wolf Friedrich August Wolf (; 15 February 1759 – 8 August 1824) was a German classicist and is considered the founder of modern philology. Biography He was born in Hainrode, near Nordhausen. His father was the village schoolmaster and organi ...

, ''Literarische Analecten'', i. 205 **

Daniel Albert Wyttenbach Daniel Albert Wyttenbach (7 August 1746, Bern17 January 1820, Oegstgeest) was a German Swiss classical scholar. A student of Hemsterhuis, Valckenaer and Ruhnken, he was an exponent of the methods of criticism which they established, and with ...

, ''Philomathia'', iii. (1817) {{DEFAULTSORT:Larcher, Pierre Henri 1726 births 1812 deaths Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres French archaeologists French classical scholars Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Writers from Dijon