Eugène Benoist

Louis-Eugène Benoist (born November 28, 1831 in Nangis , Île-de-France , † May 23, 1887 in Paris ) was a French Latinist . He is considered one of the most important French Latinists of the 19th century. Thanks to his extensive knowledge of Latin literature and his deep understanding of the Latin language, his translations of ancient texts into French are considered outstanding.

Eugène Benoist studied Classical Philology at the University of Paris . In 1862 he received his doctorate with Henri Patin with the work De personis muliebribus apud Plautum . First he worked at various high schools in Marseille , Nancy and Aix-en-Provence , from 1867 he was a member of the Academy of Marseille . In 1874 he was appointed professor of Latin literature at the University of Paris.

Benoist dedicated his dissertation to Plautus and later published it in two further editions: in 1863 he published Cistellaria , in 1864 Rudens . He also dealt with Terenz , another important representative of Latin comedy , and edited his plays Andria and Adelphoi . He published Virgil from 1867 to 1872 in a three-volume annotated edition, which was reprinted four times by 1880 alone. The Vergil edition is considered to be Benoist's most important work. He also published Catullus in 1878 in a two-volume, albeit unfinished, annotated translation. He published comments on the fifth book of Lucretius and books 21 to 25 of Titus Livius . With Henri Goelzer he published the Nouveau Lexique Français-Latin . The majority of his writings experienced various editions, the dictionary well into the 20th century. In addition, Benoist also dealt with the Latin literature of the Renaissance and the history of classical studies .

literature

• Angelika Lozar: Benoist, Eugène. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Col. 74 f.