Philologist of the Romance languages, born at Tours, France, on the 29th of July 1844. His philological studies led to his appointment, in 1864, to the staff of the National Library. His first published work was Studies upon the Trouvères of the Thirteenth Century, and this was followed by a series of works upon the language and literature of the middle ages, among which are a Dictionary of Doublets; Historical Grammar; and Etymological Dictionary of the French Language. M. Brachet’s election to a professorship of Romance philology took place in 1870, when he became connected with the École des Hautes Études in Paris. After 1873, however, he devoted himself exclusively to traveling and authorship.
