François-Joseph-Michel Christmas , born the January 12th 1756 with Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer and dead the January 29th 1841 with Paris, is a Humaniste French.

Raise, then professor with the Louis-the-Large Collège, Christmas left teaching at the beginning of the Révolution, collaborated in the newspaper the Chronicle , and fulfills various diplomatic missions.

Named member of the Court, it left it to go to Lyon to exert the functions of general police chief of police force. In 1801, it was named Préfet Haut-Rhin and, in 1802 general inspector of the state education. Its works, very many, were mainly compilations whose situation of the author in the University supported, success.

Christmas gave with J. - M. - J. Place: Conciones poeticæ, or selected Speeches of the old Latin poets (Paris, 1803, in-12); French Lessons of literature and morals (1801. , 2 vol. in-8°), collection very often reprinted and a long time widespread in all the colleges; old Latin Lessons (1808, 2 vol. in-8°); modern Latin Lessons (1818, 2 vol. in-8°); Greek Lessons (1825, 2 vol. in-8°).

It made appear, with Charles-Pierre Chapsal: New grammar French (Paris, 1823, 2 vol. in-12), become traditional and remained of use in spite of criticisms deserved to which place its arbitrary and contrary rules gave to the genius of the language and the use of the classics; New dictionary of the French language (1826; in-12).

One still has of Christmas, with his various collaborators: Dictionary etymological, critical, historical, anecdotic and literary… to be used for the history of the French language , 1839, with Mr. L. - J. Carpentier (Paris, It Normalizing, 1839); the New century of Louis XIV (Paris, 1793, 1 vol. in-8), collection of songs and satirical worms on Louis XIV and his court; Éphémérides policies, arts persons and religious (Paris, 1796 - 1797, 4. vol. in-8°); Dictionary of the Fable (Paris, 1801, 2 vol. in-8°); Dictionnarium latino-gallicum (Paris, 1807, in-8°); New dictionary, Latin French (Paris, 1808, in-8°); Gradus AD Parnassum (Paris, 1810, in-8°); French Philology or etymological, critical, historical Dictionary , etc (Paris, 1831, 2 vol. in-8°); New dictionary of the origins, inventions and discovered (Paris, 1827, 2 vol. in-8°), etc Christmas translated Catulle and Gallus (1803, 2 vol. in-8°); it completed the translation of Tite-Live of Dureau of the Trunk (1810 - 1824, 17 vol. in-8°) and re-examined the translations of Virgile and Horace by Binet.

It has, moreover, translates some works English and published various authors.

Source

• Gustave Vapereau, universal Dictionary of the literatures , Paris, Hatchet, 1876, p. 1498

External bonds

• Its works on the site gallica