Marie-Félicité Brosset (24 January 1802 – 3 September 1880) was a French historian and scholar who worked mostly in the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
Armenia
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
n studies.
Brosset's interest in the Caucasus developed while still in France. By the time he relocated to
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, of his 47 published works 36 were dedicated to Georgia, an interest he kept up throughout his career.
Early life and first works
Marie-Félicité Brosset was born in Paris into the family of a poor merchant, who died a few months after his birth. His mother destined him to the Church. He attended the theological seminaries in
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
,
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
, and
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
.
Back in Paris, he attended lectures delivered at the Collège de France by Carl Benedict Hase (Greek), Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy (Arabic), and Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (Chinese). He was elected to the Asiatic Society in 1825. His son, Laurent, reported "...after five years of unceasing effort, he suddenly gave up.." and he burned all the material he had created.
From 1826 he devoted himself to the Armenian and Georgian languages, as well as their history and culture. He had finally found his true vocation. Books, texts, teachers, and documents were all scarce, however. For his work in Armenian, he was helped by Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin. For his Georgian work, he had to create his own dictionary from the Georgian translation of the Bible, which was faithful to the Greek text.
Russia
Invited to
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
in 1837 by the president of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Count Sergey Uvarov, Brosset was elected a member a year later. He journeyed to the Caucasus in 1847–48. Brosset translated—and commented on—the major medieval and early-modern Georgian chroniclers. He published his work in seven volumes from 1849 to 1858. His magnum opus, ''Histoire de la Géorgie'', was a long-standing authority on the history of Georgia. Brosset also published the correspondence between the czars and the kings of Georgia that occurred from 1639 to 1770.
From 1861 to 1868, Brosset focused on his series regarding Armenian historians, but continued to work on them until 1876. Brosset wrote over 250 works on Georgian and Armenian history and culture overall.
Brosset left Russia in May 1880 and retired to his daughter's residence in Châtellerault. He died there several months later, on 3 September. His son, Laurent, contributed heavily to the knowledge of his life and works.
Works
Lists of works
* Brosset, Laurent. '' Bibliographie analytique'' — 271 titles, not counting supplements. Alphabetical index: p. 585-704
* in ''Bulletin de l'Académie impériale des sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg''. Vol. 27, 1880, p. 1 — 237 titles
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, 694 p.
** , 1858
** ''Histoire de la Géorgie depuis l'Antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle'', Introduction, CCXIV p., and Tables of contents, XCVI p., Saint Petersburg: Académie impériale des sciences, 1858.
** , 1849
** , Partie 2: ''Histoire moderne. Livraison 2'', 1857
** , Saint Petersburg: Académie impériale des sciences, 1851, 494 p.
* (1851) , Saint Petersburg: Académie impériale des sciences, 64 p.
* (1860–61) ''Les ruines d’ Ani, capitale de l'Arménie sous les rois bagratides aux Xe et XIe siècles'', 2 volumes, Saint Petersburg .Online /ref>
* (1862) in ''Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg'', vol. 4, issue 9, 30 p.
* ''Collection d'historiens arméniens: dix ouvrages sur l'histoire de l'Arménie et des pays adjacents du Xe au XIXe siècle'', reprinted by APA-Philo Press, 1978 .