Marie-Félicité Brosset
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...
who specialized in Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
and Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
n studies.
He was born in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
into the family of a poor merchant who died the same year that Brosset was born. His mother hoped to make a clergyman of him, and hence Brosset attended the theological seminaries in Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...
, where he studied the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
languages. Back in Paris, he attended the lectures delivered by leading French orientalists and began to study Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
. He was elected to the Asiatic Society
Société Asiatique
The Société Asiatique is a French learned society dedicated to the study of Asia. It was founded in 1822 with the mission of developing and diffusing knowledge of Asia. Its boundaries of geographic interest are broad, ranging from the Maghreb to the Far East. The society publishes the Journal...
in 1825 and soon got interested in medieval Georgian and Armenian literature
Armenian literature
-Early literature:Armenian literature begins about 406 with the invention of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop.Isaac, the Catholicos of Armenia, formed a school of translators who were sent to Edessa, Athens, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Caesarea in Cappadocia, and elsewhere, to procure...
, hitherto little known to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an scholarship. Invited by Count Sergey Uvarov
Sergey Uvarov
Count Sergey Semionovich Uvarov was a Russian classical scholar best remembered as an influential imperial statesman....
, the president of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, to Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
in 1837, he was elected a member of the Academy a year later. Back to Saint Petersburg from his 1847-8 Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
journey, Brosset translated and commented on all major medieval and early modern Georgian chroniclers and published them in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
in seven volumes from 1849 to 1858. Overall, he authored over 200 works pertaining to Georgian and Armenian history and culture. For a while, his magnum opus
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
, Histoire de la Géorgie, remained a standard authority on the history of Georgia available in Europe.
Works
His major works include:- Histoire de la Géorgie depuis l’antiquité jusqu’au XIXe siècle, v. 1-7. St.-РЬ.Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, 1848-58. (Read this book at Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC38657816&id=9PIKAAAAIAAJ&dq=Brosset, http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC38657816&id=RfMKAAAAIAAJ&dq=Brosset) - Les ruines d’Ani, capitale de l'Arménie sous les rois Bagratides aux Xe et XIe siècles, v. 1-2, St.-РЬ., 1860-61.
- Rapports sur un voyage archéologique dans la Géorgie et dans l'Arménie, exécuté en 1847-1848, livr. 1-3, St.-РЬ., 1849–51.