Viguier, Pierre FrançoIs

Viguier, Pierre François a French Orientalist, was born at Besancon July 20, 1745. He entered the ecclesiastic ranks and taught rhetoric at the college of his native place; afterwards he passed into the Congregation of St. Lazarus, and taught theology in the Seminary of Sens. In 1772 he went to Algiers to redeem the Christian slaves; and in 1783 to Constantinople, as apostolical praefect of the Jesuit establishments in the Levant, where he acquired a knowledge of the Oriental languages. After his return to France (1802) he lived in retirement, and died there Feb. 7, 1821. He left several works on Eastern philology, history, etc., for which see Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé, s.v.