LITTRÉ, Michel-François. Avranches, Normandy 25.5.1765 — 20.12.1827. French Pioneer of Indology. Son of goldsmith Jean Littré and Marie Anne Liégears (1739–1768). 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 Marie Sophie Johannot (1772–1843), two sons (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.