Renan, Joseph Ernst

b. at Treguier, Cotes du Nord, Feb. 27, 1823; was educated at the Seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris, where he studied with avidity Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac, but abandoned the intention of becoming a priest. In 1845 his Etude de la langue grecque au moyen age, was crowned by the institute. In 1848 lie gained the Volney prize for a memoir upon the Shemitic languages by his His to ire generate et systemes compare's des langues Se'mitiques, 1855, 2d ed. 1858, 2 vols. In 1848 he was sent by the Academie des Inscriptions to Italy; in 1856, elected a member; in 1860, sent on a mi ion to Syria; in 1862, appointed profe or of Hebrew at the College of France; in 1863, published his Life of Jesus; was in consequence dismi ed from his profe orship, and not re-instated until 1870. In 1860 he was appointed to the Legion of Honor; in July, 1884, made a commander. In 1878 he was elected a member of the French Academy; in April, 1881, director; in June, 1883, vice-rector (manager) of the College of France. Of his works may be mentioned, translations of Job (1859), Song of Songs (1860), Ecclesiastes (1882); e ays, E ais de morale et de critique, 1853, 3d ed. 1867; Etudes d'his to ire religieuse, 1857, 7th ed. 1864 (English trans, by O. B. Frothing ham, Studies of Religious History and Criticism, New York, 1864); his collaboration on vol. xxiv. of His to ire lilte'raire de la France, Oriental i a, Mi ion en Phe'nice, 1865-74, Rapport sur les progres de la litte'rature orientale et sur les ouvrages relatifs a I'Orient, 1868; Corpus inscriptionum semiticarum, 1881 sqq. Of more general interest are his Averroes et I'averrdisme, 1852, 2d ed. 1860; Les dialogues philosophiques, 1876 Caliban, 1878; and especially the remarkable series upon the " His to ire des origines du christian is me," Vie de Jesus (1863), Les Apotres (1866), Saint Paul et sa mi ion (1869), L'Ante'christ (1871), Les e'vangiles et la seconde generation chretienne (1877), L'Eglise chretienne (1879), Marc Aurele et la fin du monde antique (1881); the Hibbert lectures for 1880: The Influence of the Institutions, Thought, and Culture of Rome on Christianity and the Development of the Catholic Church (English trans., London, 1880, 3d ed. 1885); and his semi autobiography, Souvenirs d'Enfance et de jeune e, 1883 (English trans., Recollections of my Youth, London and New York, 1883). *