Louis Gustave Fortune Ratisbonne - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

LOUIS GUSTAVE FORTUNE RATISBONNE (1827-1900), French man of letters, was born at Strassburg on the 29th of July 1827. He studied at the school of his native town and at the College Henry IV. in Paris. He was connected with the Journal des Debats from 1853 to 1876; became librarian of the palace of Fontainebleau in 1871, and three years later to the Senate. Louis Ratisbonne's most important work was a verse translation of the Divina Commedia, in which the original is rendered tercet by tercet into French. L'Enfer (1852) was crowned by the Academy; Le Purgatoire (1857) and Le Paradis 1859) received the prix Bordin. He is also the author of some charming fables and verses for children: La Comedic enfantine (1860), Les Figures jeunes (1865) and others. He was literary executor of Alfred de Vigny, whose Destinees (1864) and Journal d'un poete (1867) he published. Ratisbonne died in Paris on the 24th of September 1900.