Marie Ivanovich Brosset

Born Jan. 24, 1802, in Paris; died Sept. 3, 1880, in Châtellerault, France. French Orientalist, linguist, and historian.

Brosset moved to Russia in the 1830’s, where he became an academician at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1838). He was the first in Russia to deliver lectures on the history of Georgia and Armenia, at St. Petersburg University in the 1840’s. In 1864 he became director of the numismatics office at the Hermitage. Brosset occupied a prominent position in Georgian and Armenian historiography as a commentator, editor, and translator of rare manuscripts written in the Georgian and Armenian languages, mainly from the Middle Ages. He published works on the history of Georgia and Armenia in the French language, such as Chronicle of Georgia (Kkarthlis Tshovreba), Geography of Georgia, and Accounts of an Archaeological Expedition in Georgia and Armenia. Brosset’s scholarly activity helped to popularize the history of Georgia and Armenia and to broaden the base of its source materials.