Antoine Galland

Antoine Galland ( born April 4, 1646 Rollot, Picardie, † February 19, 1715 in Paris) was a French orientalist and numismatist, and the first European translator of Tales of the Arabian Nights.

Life

Galland came from a family of small farmers, lost in the age of four, his father and learned the age of ten in Noyon ancient Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Later he studied in Paris at the Collège Royal and the Sorbonne. His outstanding Greek Skills prompted the then French ambassador Marquis de Nointel to take him in 1670 to a five -year mission to the Sublime Porte to Constantinople Opel, could acquire Turkish, Persian and Arabic language skills in Galland. On this journey he acquired the foundation of his important coin collection.

1676 traveled Galland to Jerusalem to study there, ancient monuments and inscriptions, recorded and sketch and made for the same purpose on behalf of the French East India Company in 1679, a third trip to the Levant, to acquire pieces for the antique collection of Colbert.

After his return in 1701 he became a member of the Paris Academy of Inscriptions and Fine Arts and in 1709 professor of Arabic at the Collège de France. He died on 19 February 1715 in Paris and was buried in the cemetery of the parish church of Saint- Étienne -du -Mont.

Works

Famous Galland is mainly because of its first-time translation of the tales of Thousand and One Nights from Arabic:

• Les mille et une nuits: contes arabes. 12 volumes. Paris from 1704 to 1708. More editions of his translations were made among others by Silvestre de Sacy in 1840 and 1857 by Jules Janin.

The first German translation appeared as early 1781-1785:

• Johann Heinrich Voss: The thousand and one Arabian night stories. 6 volumes. Bremen 1781-85. Microfiche edition of Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-53064-1.

In 1983 a bibliophile edition in German language:

• Antoine Galland ( translator's ); Babina von der Heydt (Ed. ): The Arabian Nights by Galland (Vol. 1-15 of the complete work, newly revised by Babina von der Heydt ). Edition Weitbrecht in Thienemanns Verlag, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-522-71255-2.

His main work was first published in 1694:

• Antoine Galland: Les paroles remarquables, les bons mots et les maximes of Orientaux: traduction de leurs ouvrages en arabe, en persan et en turc, avec des remarques (Paris, 1694, Lyon 1695, Paris 1730). Re: Maisonneuve & Larose, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-7068-1313- X.

1724 were published posthumously his translations of Indian tales and legends:

• Les Contes et fables indiennes de Bidpai et de Lokman. Traduites d' Ali Tchelebi -ben- Saleh, auteur turc. Posthumous oeuvre par M. (Antoine ) Galland. 2 vols. Paris 1724. Renewed publication by M. Cardonne 1784th

Galland's diary during his trip to Constantinople Opel was published in 1881 by Charles Schefer:

• Charles Schefer ( Hers. ): Journal d' Antoine Galland pendant son séjour à Constantinople 1672-1673 publié et annote par Charles Schefer. Leroux, Paris, 1881.

Many of his translations never appeared in print, including a translation of the Koran and a history of the Turkish sultans ( Histoire générale des empereurs Turcs ).