BUCHON

buchon, jean alexandre (1791-1849), french scholar, was born on the 21st of may 1791 at menetou-salon (cher), and died on the 29th of august 1849. an ardent liberal, he took an active part in party struggles under the restoration, while [v.04 p.0665] throwing himself with equal vigour into the great work of historical regeneration which was going on at that period. during 1822 and the succeeding years he travelled about europe on the search for materials for his _collection des chroniques nationales francaises ecrites en langue vulgaire du xiii^e au xvi^e siecle_ (47 vols., 1824-1829). after the revolution of 1830 he founded the _pantheon litteraire_, in which he published a _choix d'ouvrages mystiques_ (1843), a _choix de monuments primitifs de l'eglise chretienne_ (1837), a _choix des historiens grecs_ (1837), a collection of _chroniques etrangeres relatives aux expeditions francaises pendant le xiii^e siecle_ (1840), and, most important of all, a _choix de chroniques et memoires sur l'histoire de france_ (1836-1841). his travels in southern italy and in the east had put him upon the track of the medieval french settlements in those regions, and to this subject he devoted several important works: _recherches et materiaux pour servir a une histoire de la domination francaise dans les provinces demembrees de l'empire grec_ (1840); _nouvelles recherches historiques sur la principaute francaise de moree et ses hautes baronnies_ (2 vols., 1843-1844); _histoire des conquetes et de l'etablissement des francais dans les etats de l'ancienne grece sous es villehardouin_ (1846, unfinished). none of the numerous publications which we owe to buchon can be described as thoroughly scholarly; but they have been of great service to history, and those concerning the east have in especial the value of original research.