[Jean Ferdinand]. French traveler and writer, born in Paris on the 13th of August 1798; died there on the 2nd of August 1890. He spent a number of years traveling in South America, and, later, in Portugal and Spain. He was made an officer of the Legion of Honor, and at the time of his death was administrator of the St. Genevieve Library. He published a number of works descriptive of his travels; among them, Buenos Ayres and Paraguay (1825); History of the Literature of Portugal and Brazil (1833); and Chronicles of the Chivalry of Spain and Portugal (1837). He wrote a number of articles for encyclopædias of the time, and also a series of valuable translations.
