Hippolyte Vattemare

Portrait of Hippolyte   Vattemare

Hippolyte Vattemare (?- 1882) was a French literary translator who translated a great number of books and essays from the English language, mostly related to discovery travels and geography.

He translated — or adapted”, since translation was then often considered as an exercise in condensing the original text and making it (supposedly) more accessible to the French readership — English versions of travel accounts by Christopher Colombus, Vasco de Gama, David Livingstone, Frederik Whymper, Sir Samuel White Baker, and edited French Admiral La Pérouse travelogues for educational purposes’.

He also translated from French into English, mostly technical manuals and commercial or official epistolary correspondences.

(Photo: the 1879 edition of John Thomson’s book shortened and translated by H. Vattemare)