Raynouard, FRANÇOIS JUSTE MARIE, poet and philologist, was born at Brignolles, 18th September 1761, studied at Aix, and in 1791, an advocate and a deputy, joined the Girondins, and was for a time imprisoned. His poems and tragedies were successful, and in 1807 he was elected to the Academy, of which he became perpetual secretary in 1817. A member of the imperial legislative body from 1806, he continued to produce dramas, but towards the fall of the Empire turned his attention to linguistic and particularly Provençal studies. His researches into the origin and transformations of this tongue led to many valuable discoveries, though his theories as to the relation of the language of the troubadours to the other Romance tongues are not now accepted. Raynouard died at Passy, near Paris, 27th October 1836.
His chief writings are Éléments de la Grammaire Romane (1816); Choix de Poésies Originales des Troubadours (6 vols. 1816-21); Grammaire comparée des Langues de l'Europe Latine dans leur Rapports avec la Langue des Troubadours (1821); and Lexique Roman, ou Dictionnaire de la Langue des Troubadours (6 vols. 1838-44).