ANTOINE LEONARD DE

See also:

• ANTOINE LEONARD DE CHEZY (1793-1832)

CHEZY (1793-1832)  , French orientalist, was born at Neuilly on the 15th of January 1773 . His father, Antoine de Chezy (1,718-1798), was an engineer who finally became director of the f Cole des Ponts et Chaussees . The son was intended for his father's profession; but in 1799 he obtained a post in the oriental department of the national library . About 1803 he began the study of Sanskrit, though he possessed neither grammar nor dictionary, and by great labour he obtained sufficient knowledge of the language to be able to compose in it verses said to possess great elegance . He was the first professor of Sanskrit appointed in the College de France (1815), a chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and a member of the Academic des Inscriptions . He died in 1832 . Among his works were Medjouinet Leila (1807), from the Persian; Yadjanadatta Badha (1814) and La Reconnaissance de Sacountala (1830), from the Sanskrit; L'Anthologie trotique d'Amrou (1831), published under the pseudonym d'Apudy . See the Me'moires of the Academic des Inscriptions (new series, vol. xii.), where there is a notice of Chezy by Silvestre de Sacy .