Paul Cottin

Paul Cottin (5 June 1856 – 22 February 1932) was a French writer, historian and a scientific editor of historical and literary documents.

Biography He was the son of a Parisian notary and nephew of François Augustin Cottin, state advisor of the Second Empire (whose daughter married Frédéric Masson), he became, in 1881, librarian and curator of the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal of the Pavillon de l'Arsenal, after José-Maria de Heredia.

In 1895, on the death of its then owner, Édouard Dumont. the so-called Pelletan heart, allegedly that of the boy Louis XVII, was given by Dumont's cousin, Paul Cottin, to Carlos, Duke of Madrid. In 1909, it passed to Jaime, Duke of Madrid, and later to his daughter, the princess Béatrice Massimo, and finally in 1938, to the princess Infanta Maria das Neves of Portugal, legitimist heir to the throne of France.

Paul Cottin was the father of Claude de Cambronne and Marie-Thérèse Cottin, future countess Lacroix de Vimeur de Rochambeau. His granddaughter Laurence de Cambronne was the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine and his great-granddaughter Camille Cottin is an actress.