Jean François Boissonade de Fontarabie (12 August 17748 September 1857) was a French classical scholar.
Life
He was born in Paris. In 1792 he entered the public service during the administration of
General Dumouriez. Driven out in 1795, he was restored by
Lucien Bonaparte
Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (; born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), was a French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the Consulate. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to ...
, during whose time of office he served as secretary to the prefecture of the
Upper Marne. He then resigned public employment permanently, in order to devote his time to the study of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
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 of all kno ...
. In 1809 he was appointed deputy professor of Greek at the faculty of letters at Paris, and titular professor in 1813 on the death of
Pierre Henri Larcher. In 1828 he succeeded
Jean-Baptiste Gail
Jean-Baptiste Gail (1755–1829) was a French Greece, Hellenist scholar, member of the Institut de France (French Institute).
Early years
Gail was born in Paris on July 4, 1755. In 1791 he was appointed deputy, and in 1792 titular professor at th ...
in the chair of Greek at the
Collège de France
The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...
. He also held the offices of librarian of the
Bibliothèque du Roi, and perpetual secretary of the
Académie des Inscriptions.
Boissonade was the father of
Gustave Emile Boissonade.
Works
Boissonade chiefly devoted his attention to later Greek literature:
*
Philostratus
Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; ; 170s – 240s AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He flourished during the reign of Septimius Severus ...
, ''Heroica'' (1806) and ''Epistolae'' (1842)
*
Marinus, ''Vita procli'' (1814)
*
Tiberius Rhetor, ''De Figuris'' (1815)
*
Nicetas Eugenianus
Niketas Eugenianos (Νικήτας Εὐγενειανός; ''fl.'' 12th century) was a Byzantine rhetor and writer.
His life is almost entirely unknown to us. The main sources are his own works. He was a pupil of Theodore Prodromos and a precept ...
, ''Drosilla et Charicles'' (1819)
*
Herodian
Herodian or Herodianus () of Syria, sometimes referred to as "Herodian of Antioch" (c. 170 – c. 240), was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled ''History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus'' (τῆς με ...
, ''Partitiones'' (1819)
*
Aristaenetus, ''Epistolae'' (1822)
*
Eunapius, ''Vitae Sophistarum'' (1822)
*
Babrius
Babrius (, ''Bábrios''; ), "Babrius" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 21. also known as Babrias () or Gabrias (), was the author of a collection of Greek fables, many of which are known today as Aesop's F ...
, ''Fables'' (1844)
*
Tzetzes
John Tzetzes (; , Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He is known for making significant contributions in preserving much valuable information from ancien ...
, ''Allegoriae Iliadis'' (1851)
*a ''Collection of Greek Poets'' in 24 vols.
The ''Anecdota Graeca'' (1829–1833) and ''Anecdota Nova'' (1844) are important for
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
history and the Greek
grammarians.
A selection of his papers was published by
Ferdinand Colincamp, ''Critique littéraire sous le premier Empire'' (1863), vol. i of which contains a complete list of his works, and a "Notice Historique sur Monsieur B." by
Joseph Naudet.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boissonade, Jean Francois
1774 births
1857 deaths
Academic staff of the Collège de France
French scholars
French hellenists
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Burials at Montmartre Cemetery