ANCESSI, VICTOR-ANTOINE. — French Orientalist, born at Saint-Affrique on 16 August 1844, died there on 12 December 1878.
Having completed his studies at the Jesuit college in his native town, he followed in the footsteps of three priest uncles. At the seminary of S. Sulpizio, Le Hir (v.), he studied the Oriental languages. Ordained a priest in 1869, he went to Egypt to study, from its monuments, its relations with the Bible; later, as chaplain and assistant parish priest in Paris, he gave excellent evidence of his scientific preparation; but, of frail constitution, he was taken from his studies at only 34 years of age. In addition to works on comparative Semitic grammar, he left L'Egypte et Molsé, Paris 1875; Atlas biblique, there 1876; Job et l'Egypte, le Rédempteur et la vie future dans les civilisations primitives, there 1877.