French and Italian Studies

Biographical Information (France)

Note that these are only a few examples to get you started. For more specialized biographies, use “biography” as part of subject searching in Socrates and also consult the many guides and subject dictionaries in French literature, history or other fields. There is also a variety of recent biographical information on the Web, especially in periodical or newspaper indexes.

Biographie universelle (Michaud), ancienne et moderne. Nouv. éd. Paris: C. Desplaces, 1854-65. 45 vols.
CT143.B53 IC
A universal biography interesting for value judgments on 19th century authors.

Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours (Hoefer). Paris: Didot, 1862. 46 v. in 23.
CT143.H5 IC
Similar to the above but has many additional entries.

Dictionnaire de biographie française. Paris: Letouzey, 1933-
In progress. Includes extensive bibliographies.
DC36.D5

Who’s Who in France. Paris, Lafitte, 1953- Biennial. Living people only.
Latest year in IC, earlier volumes in the stacks.
DC705.A1W46 IC

Archives biographiques françaises II, microform. ABF II. Deuxième série = Französisches Biographisches Archiv. Neue Folge Réalisation, Tommaso Nappo. 1993.
MFICHE 2265 GREEN/MEDIA-MTXT

Archives biographiques françaises (ABF I), microform. Réalisation, Susan Bradley. 1988. DC36.A73 1993 V.4
GUIDE — GREEN/MEDIA-MTXT

World Biographical Index, K. G. Saur’s national bibliographical indexes (including the ABF, above) combined on the internet. For use with microforms above.

Among specialized biographical dictionaries are the following. For others, use “France-history-biography-dictionaries” to search SOCRATES or browse in the IC in section DC:

Manceron, Claude. La Révolution francaise: dictionnaire biographique; avec la collaboration d’Anne Manceron. 1989.
DC145 .M49 1989 IC

Dictionnaire du Second Empire. Sous la direction de Jean Tulard. 1995.
DC276 .D53 1995 IC

Last modified: August 25, 2008