Jean Louis Burnouf

Jean Louis Burnouf (14 September 1775, Urville, Manche - 8 May 1844) was a French philologist and translator.

The son of a poor weaver who died early in Burnouf's life, leaving him an orphan, he was admitted to the collège d'Harcourt in Paris on a scholarship and in 1792 won its Université prix d'honneur. During the French Revolution, he made his living as a merchant. Entering the Université in 1808, he was the professor of rhetoric at the lycée Charlemagne, and professor of Latin eloquence at the Collège de France, from 1817 to 1844, then inspector of the Université. He was elected a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in 1836.

Jean Louis Burnouf wrote several translations of Latin authors : Sallust, Tacitus, Cicero, Pliny the Younger. He also translated into Latin Antoine-Léonard Chézy's French version of the "Yadjanadatta Badha" ("Death of Yadjnadatta").

His son was Eugène Burnouf, and his great-nephew was Emile Burnouf, both scholars of Indian civilizations.

Publications

* "Méthode pour étudier la langue grecque" (1813-1814)
* "Méthode pour étudier la langue latine" (1840-1841)
* "Souvenirs de jeunesse, 1792-1796" (1888)
* [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Jean-Louis_Burnouf Jean Louis Burnouf] on French Wikisource

References

*"This page is a translation of its French equivalent."
* [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Burnouf%2C_Eug%C3%A8ne Jean Louis Burnouf] in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica