Brosset Marie-Feliсite

 

Brosset Marie-Feliсite (1802–1880), French Orientalist and Kartvelologist (scholar of Georgian studies). He was the first European scholar, who, in the beginning of the 19th century, founded the scientific Kartvelology in Europe. He was born in Paris, to the family of a poor merchant. He studied at the theological seminary in Orleans, in Paris. He attended lectures at the Collège de France. He showed particular interest in the oriental languages. M. Brosset studied the Chinese language and literature; Later he took up the Georgian language. Finally, the interest in the Georgian language decided the course of his scientific research. He studied the Georgian manuscripts and materials which had been kept in Paris. He published several researches in Kartvelology and manuals of Georgian grammar.

In 1830 M. Brosset sent letters to Teimuraz Batonishvili (Prince Teimuraz), the son of Giorgi XII, the last King of Georgia. Teimuraz was delighted to learn about the interest of foreign scholar in the language and culture of his homeland and promised to assist him. In 1837 the French scholar was invited to Petersburg, where he met with Teimuraz Batonishvili. In 1838 M. Brosset was elected the member of the Academy of Sciences of Petersburg in the sphere of Georgian and Armenian philology. In 1839–1841 he delivered lectures at the Petersburg University on the history of Georgia and Armenia. M. Brosset devoted a number of essays to the literary monuments of medieval Georgia. Shota Rustaveli’s The Man in the Panther’s Skin was the focal point of his interest. In 1841, at his own expense and with the assistance of Georgian men of letters, he published The Man in the Panther’s Skin. It was the second printed edition of the poem since King Vakhtang’s edition in 1712.

In 1847–1848, M. Brosset fulfilled his wish to visit Georgia. He collected a great number of epigraphic, numismatic, documentary and other materials and published them in 3 volumes in Petersburg (1849 – 1851). He translated Kartlis Tskhovreba (History of Georgia) into French and published its 7 volumes in 1848–1859. More than 200 works in Kartvelology, researched and published by M. Brosset enriched the Georgian historiography and source research. He brought up and researched a number of issues of Georgia’s medieval history. He contributed to the study of Georgian language and literature to a great extent. The Department of Georgian Language and Literature was created at the Petersburg University on M. Brosset’s initiative.

In 1880s M. Brosset’s health deteriorated and according to the advice of doctors, he returned to France. He died in Châtellerault.

In 1902 on the imitative of Ilia Chavchavadze and The Society for Spreading Literacy Among Georgians, Marie Brosset’s name was given to one of the streets of Tbilisi.