The New International Encyclopædia/Blanc, Ludwig Gottfried

BLANC, blȧṉk, Ludwig Gottfried (1781-1866). A German philologist and Dante scholar. He was born in Berlin, and after studying at the French Theological Seminary of his native city, was called to a pastorate at Halle, in 1806. In 1811 he was suspected of having taken part in a conspiracy against King Jerome of Westphalia, and was imprisoned until 1813, when he was released by a Russian flying corps. He was professor of Romance languages at the University of Halle in 1822, and from 1838 to 1860 was one of the preachers at the cathedral of that city. Professor Blanc is known chiefly for his numerous and scholarly treatises on Dante. His most important works are his Grammatik der italienischen Sprache (1844), the first attempt to trace the history of the development of the forms and laws of that language; Vocabolario Dantesco, in French (1852); and his translation of the Divine Comedy, with commentary (1864). His Handbuch des Wissenswürdigsten aus der Natur und Geschichte der Erde und ihrer Bewohner (1867-69) also enjoyed a wide popularity.