Ernst Hoepffner (14 November 1879 – 1956) was a French scholar of medieval literature.

Biography

Hoepffner was born in

Rountzenheim Rountzenheim (; ; ) is a former commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Rountzenheim-Auenheim.Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin () is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its lower altitude among the two French Rhine departments: it is downstream of the Haut-Rhin (Upper Rhine) de ...

. He hailed from a family of Protestant pastors, and studied in

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He received his doctorate in 1903, with a dissertation on

Eustache Deschamps Eustache Deschamps (13461406 or 1407) was a French poet, byname Morel, in French "Nightshade". Life and career Deschamps was born in Vertus. He received lessons in versification from Guillaume de Machaut and later studied law at Orleans Universi ...

, written under Gustav Gröber; ''Eustache Deschamps: Leben und Werke'' was published in Strasbourg (1904) and reprinted in Geneva (1974). His ''habilitation'' followed in 1906, on

Guillaume de Machaut Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to ...

. From 1911, he tutored

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

and Old Provencal in Strasbourg. In 1911 he took over Leo Wiese's chair at the University of Jena, where he taught until 1918. From 1919 to 1948 he held the chair for Romance philology at the University of Strasbourg, and was part of the exodus to Clermont-Ferrand in 1943; the razzia there of November 1943 landed him in the Gestapo jail for a few nights. In 1939, he became a non-resident member of the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

. Paul Imbs was one of his students. He died 16 October 1956. Among his publications are a three-volume edition (1908-1921) of the works of

. From 1912 to 1919 he edited the ''Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie'', and he edited the journal ''Romania''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoepffner, Ernst 1879 births 1956 deaths Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Officers of the Legion of Honour People from Bas-Rhin Academic staff of the University of Jena Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg