At the age of thirteen he was sent to be educated at Pont-le-Voy near Blois, and in 1828 began the study of Arabic under Silvestre de Sacy. After a visit to England, where he married, he obtained a post in the Spanish treasury, and was transferred to the foreign office as translator in 1833.
In 1836 he returned to England, wrote extensively in English periodicals, and translated Al Makkari's History of the Mahommedan Dynasties in Spain (1840-1843) for the Royal Asiatic Society. In England he also made the acquaintance of Ticknor, to whom he was very helpful. In 1843 be returned to Spain as professor of Arabic at the university of Madrid, which post he held until 1881, when he was made director of public instruction. This office he resigned upon being elected senator for the district of Huelva.
His latter years were spent in cataloguing the Spanish manuscripts in the British Museum; he had previously continued Bergenroth's catalogue of the manuscripts relating to England in the Simancas archives. His best-known original work is his dissertation on Spanish romances of chivalry in Rivadeneyra's Biblioteca de autores espańoles. He died in London on the 4th of October 1891.
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