Xavier Boniface Saintine

The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is poetry, drama and libretto. Positions recorded include president of the Société des gens de lettres. Works named in the authority record are Picciola. Work by Xavier Boniface Saintine is recorded in the collections of Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Legion of Honour.

• Birth Name — Joseph Xavier Boniface • Born — 10 July 1798 • Birthplace — Paris, France • Died — 21 January 1865 • Place of death — Paris, France • Occupation — Playwright, novelist • Illustration — Cover of Antoine, 1839

He was born Joseph Xavier Boniface in Paris in 1798. In 1823, he produced a volume of poetry in the manner of the Romanticists, entitled Poèmes, odes, épîtres. In 1836, he wrote Picciola, a novel about the Count de Charney, a political prisoner in Piedmont, whose reason was saved by his cultivation of a tiny flower growing between the paving stones of his prison yard. This story is a masterpiece of the sentimental kind, and was translated into many European languages. The novel earned him renown and came to be regarded as a classic of French literature. He produced many other novels, and was a dramatist. He collaborated in more than 200 pieces with Eugène Scribe and others, usually under the name of Xavier. He co-wrote the story which was to form the basis for Bellini's opera I puritani. He died in Paris in 1865.

Saintine wrote more than 200 theatre plays and novels under the pen names Saintine, X.B. Saintine, Joseph Xavier Saintine, Xavier.

• 1833 (25 September): Têtes Rondes et Cavaliers, with Jacques-François Ancelot, Théâtre du Vaudeville; it also formed the basis for the libretto of the 1835 opera I Puritani, by Vincenzo Bellini • 1834: Le Mari de la favorite, five-act comedy, with Michel Masson, Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin • 1836: Madame Favart, with Michel Masson, Théâtre du Palais Royal • 1841: Mademoiselle Sallé with Jean-François Bayard and Dumanoir, Théâtre du Palais Royal

Xavier Boniface Saintine was recorded at birth as Joseph Xavier Saintine. His recorded language was French.

Xavier Boniface Saintine worked in poetry, drama, libretto and literature. Recorded position is president of the Société des gens de lettres.