Roland Mortier

Roland Mortier (21 December 1920 – 31 March 2015) was a prominent Belgian scholar, philosopher and academic, known for his contributions to linguistics and literature. Mortier obtained his PhD in Philology, specialisting in 18th century literature and Franco-German reports, from the Université libre de Bruxelles in 1946. He was a member of the Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique

Background Mortier was born on 21 December 1920 in Ghent, Belgium. His family spoke primarily French, and he studied in Dutch at the Royal Athenaeum in Antwerp. Mortier extended his language skills further, learning German, when holidaying with his maternal grandmother in Luxembourg.

In 1938, he enrolled at the Université libre de Bruxelles. Mortier went on to succeed Charlier and took a tenure as a professor at the University of Brussels. and Japan.

On March 31, 2015, Mortier died at the age of 94 in Brüssel.

Awards and Memberships In recognition of his contributions to academia, Mortier received numerous honours and awards, including the Francqui Prize, the highest scientific award in Belgium. He was a member of several prestigious academic organisations including the Royal Academy of Flemish Language and Literature.

Awards Francqui Prize (1965)

Prix Montaigne (1983)

President of l'Association Internationale de littérature comparée (1976–1979)

Member and Honorary President of l'Association Internationale des Études Françaises (1976)

Honorary Doctorates He held honorary doctorates from the Universities of Montpellier, Göttingen and Jerusalem. He wrote extensively - the result of fifty years of teaching and research concluded in publication of Le Coeur et la raison (The Heart and Reason), in 1990, by the Voltaire Foundation in Oxford. The publication brought together thirty-five of the two hundred and thirty articles Mortier published by that time. The publication was entitled Les Combats des Lumières: Recueil d'études sur le dix-huitième siècle.

Written works

Le journal encyclopédique, 1756-1793. (1952) Un precursor de Madame de Staël: Charles Vanderbourg (1765-1827). His contribution to intellectual exchanges at the dawn of the 19th century. (published Doctoral Thesis 1955) Les Archives Litteraires de L'Europe. Le "Hochepot, ou, Salmigondi des Folz" (1596): étude historique et linguistique suivie d'une édition du texte. (1959) Unité ou scission du siècle des lumières?, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century. (1963) Les Annees De Formation De F.H.Jacobi, D'Apres Ses Lettres Indedites a M.M. Rey (1763-1771) Avec Le Noble, De Madame De Charriere (ST). (1966) Diderot in Deutschland, 1750-1850. (1967) Clartés et Ombres du siècle des Lumières: Études sur le 18e siècle littéraire. (1969) Le Coeur et la raison. (1990) Schnittpunkte: komparatistische Studien zur romanischen Kultur : gewidmet Peter-Eckhard Knabe. (1994) Contes immoraux. (1995) Un précurseur de Madame de Stäel: Charles Vanderbourg, 1765-1827; sa contribution aux échanges intellectuels à l'aube de XIXe siècle. (1995) Anacharsis Cloots, ou, L'utopie foudroyée. (1995) Denis Diderot, Pensées philosophiques. (1998) Dictionnaire de Diderot. (1999) Les combats des Lumières: recueil d'études sur le dix-huitième siècle. (2000) Portraits de femmes. (2000) Le XVIIIe siècle au quotidien .(2001) L'aube de la modernité 1680-1760 (2002) Juliette de Robersart, une voyageuse belge oubliée. (en: Juliette de Robersart, a forgotten Belgian traveler) (2003) Les Combats des Lumières: Recueil d'études sur le dix-huitième siècle. (2006)