Jean Antoine Letronne was a French archaeologist.

Born in Paris, his father, a poor engraver, sent him to study art under the painter David, but his own tastes were literary, and he became a student in the Collège de France

Collège de France

The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...

, where it is said he used to exercise his already strongly developed critical faculty by correcting old translations of Greek

Greek literature

Greek literature refers to writings composed in areas of Greek influence, typically though not necessarily in one of the Greek dialects, throughout the whole period in which the Greek-speaking people have existed.-Ancient Greek literature :...

 authors and afterwards comparing the results with the latest and most approved editions.

Overview

From 1810 to 1812 he travelled in France, Switzerland and Italy, and on his return to Paris published a paper entitled Essai critique sur la topographie de Syracuse, designed to elucidate Thucydides

Thucydides

Thucydides was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC...

. Two years later appeared his Recherches geographiques et critiques on the De Mensura Orbis Terrae of Dicuil. In 1815 he was commissioned by government to complete the translation of Strabo

Strabo

Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

  which had been begun by François-Jean-Gabriel de La Porte du Theil, and in March 1816 he was one of those who were admitted to the Academy of Inscriptions

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...

 by royal ordinance, having previously contributed On the Metrical System of the Egyptians.

Further promotion came rapidly: in 1817 he was appointed director of the École Nationale des Chartes

École Nationale des Chartes

The École Nationale des Chartes is a grand établissement, an elite French university-level educational institution based in Paris. It provides education and training for archivists and librarians and forms part of the University of Paris.-History:...

, in 1829 inspector-general of the university, and in 1831 professor of history in the Collège de France

Collège de France

The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...

. This chair he exchanged in 1838 for that of archaeology, and in 1840 he succeeded Pierre Claude François Daunou

Pierre Claude François Daunou

Pierre Claude François Daunou was a French statesman and historian of the French Revolution and Empire.- Early career :...

as keeper of the national archives.

Meanwhile he had published, among other works, Considérations générales sur l'évaluation des monnaies grecques et romaines, et sur la valeur de l'or et de l'argent avant la découverte de l'Amérique in 1817, Recherches pour servir à l'histoire de l'Egypte pendant la domination des Grecs et des Romains in 1823, and Sur l'origine grecque des zodiaques pretendus egyptiens in 1837. By the lastnamed he finally exploded a fallacy which had up to that time vitiated the chronology of contemporary Egyptologists. His Diplômes et chartes de l'époque mérovingienne, sur papyrus et sur vélin were published in 1844. The most important work of Letronne is the Recueil des inscriptions grecques et latines de l'Égypte, of which the first volume appeared in 1842, and the second in 1848.