compiler of major French bibliographical works.

The son of a bookseller, Brunet acquired a taste for bibliography at an early age and published a supplement to the Dictionnaire bibliographique de livres rares (1810; “Dictionary of Rare Books”), brought out a few years earlier. The first edition of Brunet's Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres (1810; “Bookseller's and Book Lover's Manual”) rapidly became the standard French bibliographical dictionary. Among Brunet's other works are Nouvelles recherches bibliographiques (1834; “New Bibliographical Studies”) and a study of the early editions of François Rabelais.