The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Depping, Georges Bernard

DEPPING, Georges Bernard, a miscellaneous writer, born at Münster in Westphalia, May 11, 1784, died in Paris, Sept. 5, 1853. He went to Paris in 1803, and during the rest of his life was engaged in writing books on a variety of subjects and preparing articles for various periodicals and cyclopædias. Among his works were two juvenile books which obtained great popularity, and were translated into several languages: Les soirées d'hiver, ou entretiens d'un père avec ses enfants sur le génie, les mœurs et l'industrie des divers peuples de la terre (2 vols., 3d ed., 1832), and Merveilles et beautés de la nature en France (2 vols., 1835). He assisted Malte-Brun in his geographical works, and wrote descriptive sketches of Switzerland, Greece, England, and other countries. His most important historical works are: Histoire générale de l'Espagne (2 vols., 1811); Histoire des expéditions maritimes des Normands et de leur etablissement en France au dixième siècle (1826); Histoire du commerce entre le Levant et l'Europe, depuis les croisades jusqu'à la fondation des colonies d'Amérique (2 vols., 1832); Les Juifs dans le moyen âge (1834); and Histoire de la Normandie sous le regne de Guillaume le Conquérant et de ses successeurs (2 vols., 1835). Several of these have been translated into other languages. He also wrote several books of travel, made various translations, edited the Romancero castellano and other works, contributed to the Biographie universelle and the Encyclopédie portative, and published an autobiography in German entitled Erinnerungen aus dem Leben eines Deutschen in Paris. An account of his life and works, by Alfred Maury, was published in Paris in 1854.