Jean Antoine Letronne

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Jean Antoine Letronne (born January 25, 1787 in Paris ; † December 14, 1848 there ) was a French scholar of antiquity .

Jean Antoine Letronne, lithograph by Julien Léopold Boilly (1796–1874)

Life

Jean Antoine Letronne was a son of the engraver Jean Louis Letronne (1766-1801) and the older brother of the painter Louis Letronne (1790-1842). Like him, he began training with the painter Jacques-Louis David , but he was more interested in science and attended polytechnic school. As a result of the death of his father in 1801, however, he was unable to complete his education at this school, but had to contribute financially to his own maintenance and that of his mother and younger brother. So he accepted the offer of the geography professor Edme Mentelle to become his assistant and in various compilations ( Dictionnaire de Géographie moderne , Géographie de toutes les Parties du Monde) to work with. He now began studying at the Collège de France . It is reported that there he further trained his already highly developed critical skills by correcting old, erroneous editions by Greek authors and then comparing the results with the most recent and most recognized editions.

After Letronne had worked hard and successfully as a collaborator at Mentelles for several years, studying diligently and successfully, he was able to undertake a major scientific journey through France, Italy and Switzerland from October 1810 to June 1812 in the wake of a rich foreigner. After his return to Paris he published a work in 1813 entitled Essai critique sur la topographie de Syracuse au commencement de cinquième siècle avant J. Chr. , Which dealt with the interpretation of Thucydides . In 1814 he published his research on the De Mensura Orbis Terrae des Dicuil . In 1815 he was commissioned by the government to complete the translation of Strabo begun by Gabriel de La Porte du Theil . After he wrote the award-winning text Recherches sur les fragments d ' Héron d'Alexandrie , ou histoire du système métrique des Égyptiens depuis le règne des Pharaons jusqu'à l'invasion des Arabes (only printed in 1851) , he was published in March 1816 the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres .

Further promotions Letronnes followed quickly: in 1817 he was appointed director of the École des Chartes , in 1829 general inspector of the university and in 1831 professor of history at the Collège de France . He exchanged this chair for archeology in 1838. In the same year he opposed with all the sub-librarians against the appointment of a director of the royal library by the education minister Narcisse-Achille de Salvandy , whereupon a new orderly of the minister Abel-François Villemain placed him at the head of the library. In 1840 he succeeded Pierre-Claude Daunou as head of the national archives . He was later entrusted with the administration of the Collège de France. In the latter position, in particular, he successfully resumed his earlier studies, and many important points in archeology, numismatics, ancient history, and ancient geography were partly elucidated and partly corrected as a result of his tireless research. He died on December 14, 1848 at the age of 61 in Paris.

Since 1821 he was a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and since 1832 a foreign member . In 1834 he was elected a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

The lunar crater Letronne was named after him.

More fonts

  • Cours élémentaire de geographie ancienne et modern. 1814 (often reissued).
  • Considérations générales sur l'évaluation des monnaies grecques et romaines, et sur la valeur de l'or et de l'argent avant la découverte de l'Amérique. Didot, Paris 1817, digitized .
  • Recherches pour servir à l'histoire de l'Égypte pendant la domination des Grecs et des Romains. Boulland-Tardien, Paris 1823, digitized .
  • Observations critiques et archéologiques sur l'objet des représentations zodiacales qui nous restent de l'antiquité. Paris 1824.
  • Tabulae octo nummorum, ponderum, mensurarum apud Romanos et Graecos. Paris 1825.
  • Éclaircissements historiques faisant suite aux œuvres de Rollin. Paris 1825.
  • Analysis critique du recueil d'inscriptions grecques et latines de M. le comte de Vidua. Paris 1828.
  • Matériaux pour servir à l'histoire du christianisme. Paris 1833.
  • La statue vocale de Memnon, considérée dans ses rapports avec l'Égypte et la Grèce. Paris 1833.
  • Lettres sur l'emploi de la peinture historique murale chez les Grecs et les Romains. 2 vol., Paris 1835–37.
  • Sur l'Origine greque des zodiaques prétendus Egyptiens. In: Revue des Deux Mondes . Ser. 4, Vol. 11, 1837, pp. 464–491, digitized , (also special edition : Fournier, Paris 1837). With this writing he corrected an error that had until then falsified the chronology of the Egyptologists.
  • Fragments of the poèmes geographiques de Scymnus de Chio et du faux Dicéarque . 1840 (Letronne restored these fragments from a manuscript in the royal library).
  • Diplômes et Chartres de l'Époque Mérovingienne sur Papyrus et sur Vélin conservés aux Archives du Royaume. Kaeppelin, Paris 1848.
  • Recueil des inscriptions grecques et latines de l'Égypte, étudiées dans leur rapport avec l'histoire politique, l'administration intérieure, les institutions civiles et réligieuses de ce pays depuis la conquête d'Alexandre jusqu'à celle des Arabes. 2 volumes. A L'Imprimerie Royale, 1842–1848, digitized volume 1 , digitized volume 2 , (Letronne's main work, continued by Charles Marie Wladimir Brunet de Presle ).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Digitized at archive.org . Retrieved June 16, 2015.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Letronne, Jean Antoine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French classical scholar
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1787
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1848
Place of death Paris