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)