X.-B. Saintine
1798–1865 · France
French novelist, dramatic author, poet and amateur photographer
Joseph-Xavier Boniface, known by the pen name X.-B. Saintine, was born in Paris in 1798 and died there in 1865. Musée d’Orsay describes him as a novelist, dramatic author, poet and amateur photographer, a combination that places his work across several literary forms and visual pursuits. Library catalogues associate his name with novels and works for the stage; the Bibliothèque nationale de France records Picciola among the novels published under the Saintine name.
Saintine’s La mythologie du Rhin appeared in Paris from Hachette in 1862. It follows the Rhine through ancient landscapes and gathers traditions about Druids, sacred trees, northern gods, water spirits and household beings. The book combines travel description, myth, anecdote and speculative comparisons common in nineteenth-century writing. Its claims about religion and the history of peoples belong to that period’s approach and should be read in context.
The English Myths of the Rhine appeared in 1874 in a translation by M. Schele de Vere, with illustrations by Gustave Doré. Saintine wrote the French source text; Schele de Vere translated it, and Doré supplied the illustrations. This edition keeps those contributions distinct.