He had a deep knowledge of Semitic and oriental languages and was a religious historian. He was born in Brittany, at Tréguier, on 28th of February 1823. Orphan since his youngest age, he entered the seminary when he was fifteen. He left it seven years later in order pursue his studied, which led him to Italy for his degree about Averroism (school of philosophy based on the works of the philosopher Averroes).
The imagination of the contemporary traveler gets lost in the alleys, after crossing Piazza del Plebiscito, touching the Royal Palace, the San Carlo Theater, and Via Toledo, aiming here and there at the surprising green patches of Capodimonte, the vegetable gardens and the Posillipine parks and the coastal cliffs of yellow tuff.