AMPERE, JEAN JACQUES (1800-1864), French philol ogist and man of letters, only son of Andre Marie Ampere, born at Lyons. In an extended tour in northern Europe, he studied the f olk-songs and popular poetry of the Scandinavian countries. Returning to France, he delivered in 183o a series of lectures on Scandinavian and early German poetry at the Athenaeum in Mar seille. The first of these was printed as De l'Histoire de la poesie (183o), and was practically the first introduction of the French public to the Scandinavian and German epics. Ampere became professor of the history of French literature at the College de France. A journey in northern Africa (1841) was followed by a tour in Greece and Italy, in company with Prosper Merimee and others. This bore fruit in his Voyage dantesque (printed in his Grece, Rome at Dante, 1848), which helped to popularize the study of Dante in France. In 1848 he became a member of the French Academy, and in 1851 he visited America. From this time until his death at Pau he was occupied with his chief work, L'Histoire romaine a Rome (1861-64).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—The Correspondance et souvenirs of A. M. and Bibliography.—The Correspondance et souvenirs of A. M. and J. J. Ampere (1805-54) was published in 1875. Notices of J. J. Ampere are to be found in Sainte-Beuve's Portraits Litteraires, vol. iv., and Nouveaux Landis, vol. xiii. ; and in P. Merimee's Portraits historiques et litteraires (2nd. ed., 1875).