Jean-François Le Gonidec

He played an important role in the history of his native language by initiating a reform of its orthography, producing an orderly grammar and making the first Breton translation of the New Testament.

After 1804, he joined Napoleon's Naval administration (Marine de guerre), and was commissioned to administer the forests with a view to manage the production of wood for ship building.

Le Gonidec wished to purify Breton, minimising French loan words used in vernacular speech and clarifying its relationship to its closest living relative Welsh.

It was only published in 1827 under the auspices of the British and Foreign Bible Society, who had been lobbied to support Le Gonidec by the champion of Welsh language publications, Thomas Price (known as "Carnhuanawc").

They were adopted immediately by Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué (1815–1895) and Auguste Brizeux (1803–1858), whose works, especially the former's Barzaz Breiz, founded modern Breton literature.