BEUGNOT, AUGUSTE ARTHUR, COUNT:

By: Isidore Singer, Isaac Broydé

French statesman and scholar; born at Bar-sur-Aube March, 1797; died at Paris March 15, 1865. Originally he adopted the profession of advocate, but soon abandoned it in order to devote himself entirely to the study of history, and especially the history of the Crusades. He was scarcely thirty-fiveyears old when he was elected member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.

Among many valuable works he wrote, "Les Juifs d'Occident, ou Recherches sur I' État Civil, le Commerce, et la Littérature des Juifs en France, en Espagne, et en Italie Pendant la Durée du Moyen-Age," Paris, 1824. This essay is not free from errors such as are common to those that obtain their information from secondary sources. In the preface, in which he passes in review the period of the struggles of the Jews with the Romans, and the state of the Jews exiled under the Roman emperors, Beugnot betrays scant knowledge of ancient Jewish history. Thus he asserts, contrary to the most authentic documents, that Julian the Apostate never granted to the Jews permission for the rebuilding of the Temple. Nevertheless, the work contains much information on the history of the Jews of France, Spain, and Italy, which has proved valuable to later historians. The author, who was a Catholic, does not attempt to extenuate the horrors of the persecution of the Jews in the Middle Ages.

S. I. Br.