Léon Gautier

Léon Gautier (8 August 1832 – 25 August 1897) was a French literary historian and archivist. He was born in Le Havre a language teacher born in Alençon in 1797, Léon lost his mother at the age of three. He was raised in Paris by his aunt, Madame Moyat, the widow of an Imperial colonel.

His father enrolled him at the Lycée de Laval, alongside another future colleague, Michel Bréal.

Gautier studied at the École des Chartes from 1852 to 1855, where he obtained the diploma of archivist-paleographer with a thesis entitled Essai sur la poésie liturgique au Moyen Âge: proses, tropes, offices rimés, suivi d’une histoire de la versification latine à la même époque ("Essay on liturgical poetry in the Middle Ages: proses, tropes, rhymed offices, followed by a history of Latin versification in the same period").

It was at the École des Chartes that he wrote his first Essays on Liturgical Poetry in the Middle Ages, the subject of his thesis. He had conceived the project of creating a comprehensive work on proses, tropes, and rhymed offices. He wished to write the history of this poetry and assemble a truly complete collection, where the chants of all the Churches of Christendom, gathered side by side, would give the work a real character of universality. This project was realized through the publication of the Poetic Works of Adam of Saint-Victor (considered the greatest Latin liturgical poet of the Middle Ages) and by the History of Liturgical Poetry in the Middle Ages.

In the latter volume, he addressed the question of tropes interpolated into the pontifical text of the Catholic liturgy. He detailed the nature, origin, and vicissitudes of these pieces of the office, which are intimately linked to the history of Latin poetry, music, and theatre in the Middle Ages. In his original research, Gautier traced the development of tropes and demonstrated how proses emerged from them, followed by the small satirical poems sung by student monks during recreation—a work of scholarship achieved through the study of manuscripts. He thus showed the resources offered by liturgical monuments in assessing the spirit and habits of medieval religious society.

Upon leaving the École des Chartes, he was immediately attached as secretary to François Guessard, whom the Ministry of Public Instruction had just entrusted with the direction of the collection Anciens Poètes de la France ("Ancient Poets of France"). Accompanying Guessard to Switzerland and Italy, Gautier discovered at the Marciana Library in Venice a small French poem by an Italian author. He highlighted its interest and merit by analyzing it in the Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes under the title Entrée en Espagne ("Entry into Spain"), thus preluding his studies on the origin of national literary history to which his name would remain attached.

Appointed archivist of the Haute-Marne department at the end of 1856, he held this post for two years before entering the Imperial Archives on 1 March 1859. He remained there for 38 years, replacing the historian Siméon Luce as head of the historical section in 1893. Appointed professor of paleography at the École des Chartes in 1871, he continued his teaching there for over twenty-five years until his death.

Selected publications

—— (1858). Quelques mots sur l’étude de la paléographie ("A Few Words on the Study of Paleography"), Paris. —— (1858). Essai d’une théorie catholique de l’origine du langage ("Essay on a Catholic Theory of the Origin of Language"), Paris. —— (1858). L’Entrée en Espagne, chanson de geste inédite, Paris. —— (1858–59). Œuvres poétiques d’Adam of Saint-Victor. —— (1860). Définition catholique de l’histoire ("Catholic Definition of History"), Paris. —— (1860). L’Amour par un catholique ("Love by a Catholic"), Paris. —— (1861). Scènes et nouvelles catholiques, Paris.

—— (1865-1868). Les Épopées françaises ("French Epics"). —— (1872). La Chanson de Roland (critical text). —— (1873). Portraits contemporains et questions actuelles.

—— (1876). Lettres d’un catholique ("Letters of a Catholic"). —— (1881). La Chanson de Roland (popular edition). (novelle édition, sans date, ) —— (1886). Histoire de la poésie liturgique au Moyen Âge: les tropes. —— (1894–95). Portraits du XIX siècle. 1. Poètes et romanciers ("Poets and Novelists"). —— (1881). Portraits du XIX siècle. 2. Historiens et critiques ("Historians and Critics"), 1894-95. —— (1894-1895). Portraits du XIX siècle. 3. Apologistes ("Apologists"). —— (1894–95). Portraits du XIX siècle. 4. Nos adversaires et nos amis ("Our Adversaries and Our Friends"). —— (1894–95). Portraits du XVII siècle suivis d'études sur les deux derniers siècles. —— (1897). Bibliographie des chansons de geste.