Editing Gaston Paris

{{short description|French historian and Romance scholar (1839–1903)}}
{{For|the French photographer|Gaston Paris (photographer)}}
{{infobox academic|image = Gaston Paris.jpg|birth_place=[[Avenay-Val-d'Or|Avenay]], France|birth_date=9 August 1839|death_place=[[Cannes]], France|death_date=5 March 1903|relatives=[[Paulin Paris]]|discipline=[[literary history]]|main_interests=[[Romance studies]] and [[medieval French literature]]|alma_mater=[[University of Bonn]]<br/>[[École Nationale des Chartes]]|work_institutions=[[Collège de France]]|notable_works=''Histoire poétique de Charlemagne''
}}

'''Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris''' ({{IPA|fr|ɡastɔ̃ paʁis}}; 9 August 1839 – 5 March 1903) was a French [[literary historian]], [[philologist]], and scholar specialized in [[Romance studies]] and [[medieval French literature]]. He was nominated for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1901, 1902, and 1903.<ref name="nobellit">{{Cite web | url = http://nobelprize.org/nomination/literature/nomination.php?string=Gaston+Paris&action=simplesearch&submit.x=15&submit.y=8 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110604051239/http://nobelprize.org/nomination/literature/nomination.php?string=Gaston+Paris&action=simplesearch&submit.x=15&submit.y=8 | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2011-06-04 | title = Gaston Paris | work = The Nomination Database for the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1901-1950 | publisher = Nobel Foundation | access-date = 2010-02-04}}</ref>

==Biography==
Gaston Paris was born under the [[July Monarchy]] at [[Avenay-Val-d'Or|Avenay]] ([[Marne (department)|Marne]]), the son of [[Paulin Paris]], an important French scholar of [[medieval French literature]]. In his childhood, Gaston learned to appreciate [[Old French language|Old French]] romances as poems and stories, and this early impulse for the study of [[Romance (heroic literature)|Romance literature]] was placed on a solid basis by courses of study at the [[University of Bonn]] (1856), in the [[German Confederation]], and at the [[École Nationale des Chartes]], at the time under the rule of the [[Second French Empire]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Paris taught French grammar in a private school,<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Gaston-Bruno-Paulin Paris}}</ref> later succeeding [[Alexis Paulin Paris|his father]] as professor of [[medieval French literature]] at the [[Collège de France]] in 1872; in 1876 he was admitted to the [[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]], and in 1896 to the [[Académie Française]]; in 1895 he was appointed director of the [[Collège de France]]. He won a reputation as a renowned [[Romance studies|scholar of Romance literature]] throughout Europe. In Bonn he had learnt the [[Scientific history|scientific methods of exact research]], but besides being an accurate philologist he was a [[literary critic]] of great acumen and breadth of view, and brought a singularly clear mind to bear on his favourite study of medieval French literature. His ''[[Vie de saint Alexis]]'' (1872) broke new ground and provided a model for future editors of medieval texts. It included the original text and the variations of it dating from the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. He contributed largely to the ''[[Histoire littéraire de la France]]'', and with [[Paul Meyer (philologist)|Paul Meyer]] published ''Romania'', an [[academic journal]] devoted to the study of Romance literature.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1877 Gaston Paris was invited to [[Sweden]] for the 400th anniversary of the [[Upsala University]], where he was made an honorary doctor. Before returning home he also visited Kristiania ([[Oslo]]) to take part in a celebration of the [[Norway|Norwegian]] philosopher [[Marcus Jacob Monrad]]. At the [[University of Oslo]] Gaston Paris also held a lecture about the two folktale collectors, [[Asbjørnsen and Moe]], which he believed to be, besides the [[Brothers Grimm]], the best re-tellers of the genre.

He received the German Order [[Pour le Mérite]] (civil class) in August 1902.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular|date=19 August 1902 |page=8 |issue=36850}}</ref> Paris died in [[Cannes]] in 1903.

==Works==
*''[https://archive.org/details/histoirepotiqu00pariuoft Histoire poétique de Charlemagne]'' (1865)
*''Les Plus anciens monuments de la langue française'' (1875)
*''Manuel d'ancien Français'' (1888)
*''Mystère de la passion by [[Arnoul Gréban]]'' (1878), in collaboration with [[Gaston Raynaud]]
*''Deux rédactions du roman des sept sages de Rome'' (1876)
*a translation of the ''Grammaire des langues romanes'' (1874–1878) of [[Friedrich Christian Diez|Friedrich Diez]], in collaboration with MM. Brachet and [[Alfred Morel-Fatio|Morel-Fatio]].
*''La Poésie du Moyen Âge'' (1885 and 1895)
*''Penseurs et poètes'' (1897)
*''Poèmes et légendes du moyen âge'' (1900)
*''François Villon'' (1901), an admirable monograph contributed to the "Grands Écrivains Français" series
*''Legendes du Moyen Âge'' (1903).
* Summary of medieval French literature forms a volume of the ''Temple Primers''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Paris, Gaston|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BrA-AAAAYAAJ|title=Medieval French Literature|year=1903|series=Temple Primers|publisher=J.M. Dent & Company|postscript=; translated from the French by [[Hannah Lynch]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Medieval French Literature'' by Gaston Paris|journal=The Athenaeum|issue=3941|date=May 9, 1903|pages=587–588|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oKA5AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA587}}</ref>{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Paris endeared himself to a wide circle of scholars outside his own country by his unfailing urbanity and generosity. In France, he trained a band of disciples at the École des Chartes and the [[Collège de France]] who continued the traditions of exact research that he established. Among them were [[Leopold Pannier]]; [[Marius Sepet]], the author of ''Le Drame chrétien au Moyen Âge'' (1878) and ''Origines catholiques du théâtre moderne'' (1901); [[Charles Joret]]; [[Alfred Morel-Fatio]]; [[Gaston Raynaud]], who was responsible for various volumes of the excellent editions published by the [[Société des anciens textes français]]; [[Arsène Darmesteter]]; and others.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==References==
{{reflist}}
'''Attribution:'''
*{{EB1911|wstitle = Paris, Bruno Paulin Gaston|volume=20|page=804}}

==Further reading==
*"Hommage à Gaston Paris" (1903), the opening lecture of his successor, [[Joseph Bédier]], in the chair of medieval literature at the College de France;
*A. Thomas, ''Essais de philologie française'' (1897);
*[[W. P. Ker]], in the ''Fortnightly Review'' (July 1904);
*M. Croiset, ''Notice sur Gaston Paris'' (1904);
*J. Bédier et M. Roques, ''Bibliographie des travaux de Gaston Paris'' (1904).

{{Académie française Seat 17}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paris, Gaston}}
[[Category:1839 births]]
[[Category:1903 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century French historians]]
[[Category:19th-century French male writers]]
[[Category:19th-century French non-fiction writers]]
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[[Category:20th-century French male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century French non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Collège de France]]
[[Category:École Nationale des Chartes alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the École pratique des hautes études]]
[[Category:French expatriates in Germany]]
[[Category:French expatriates in Norway]]
[[Category:French expatriates in Sweden]]
[[Category:French literary critics]]
[[Category:French literary historians]]
[[Category:French medievalists]]
[[Category:French philologists]]
[[Category:Literary critics of French]]
[[Category:Medieval French literature]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie Française]]
[[Category:Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:People from Marne (department)]]
[[Category:People of the French Third Republic]]
[[Category:People of the July Monarchy]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Romance philologists]]
[[Category:University of Bonn alumni]]