LITTRÉ, Michel-François. Avranches, Normandy 25.5.1765 — 20.12.1827. French Pioneer of Indology. Son of a goldsmith. Served in French navy and adopted revolutionary ideas. Then settled in Paris as tax-collector. In order to give good education to his sons he achieved a library and studied Greek, later also Sanskrit. Married with Sophie Johannot, father of the physician and philologist Emile Littré (1801-1881), who was known as lexicographer and translator of Hippocrates, also a friend of Burnouf and student of Sanskrit.

Publications: Review of O. Frank’s Chrestomathia Sanskrita, JA 3, 1823, 51-56.

Sources: Not in B.U., his son in N.B.G. 31 and French Wikipedia; life dates in http://gw.geneanet.org/bourelly?lang=fr&p=michel+francois&n=littre.