Francisque Xavier Michel (18 February 1809,

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

– 18 May 1887,

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 ...

) was a French historian and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

Life

He became known for his editions of French works of the Middle Ages, and the French Government, recognizing their value, sent him to England (1833) and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

(1837) to continue his research there. In 1837 he became a member of the Comité Historique and in 1838 chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. In 1839 he was appointed professor of foreign literature in the ''Faculté des lettres'' at the

University of Bordeaux The University of Bordeaux (, ) is a public research university based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It has several campuses in the cities and towns of Bordeaux, Dax, Gradignan, Périgueux, Pessac, and Talence. There are al ...

. Between 1834 and 1842 he published editions of many works written between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries in French, English, and

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

, including the ''Roman de la rose'' and the ''Chanson de Roland''. He got his licence in literature in 1842, and his doctorat in 1846, with a thesis in Latin on

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

and a thesis in French, entitled: ''Histoire des races maudites de la France et de l'Espagne''. Subsequently, he published French translations of

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, Sterne,

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, and

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's ...

. In 1857 he published his important book on the Basque Country: ''Le Pays Basque, sa population, sa langue, ses moeurs, sa littérature et sa musique''.

Publications

*''Quae vices quaeque mutationes et Virgilium ipsum et ejus carmina per mediam aetatem exceperint.'' (thesis, 1846). *''Histoire des races maudites de la France et de l'Espagne'' (thesis, 1847) *''Recherches sur le commerce pendant le moyen âge'' (1852–1854) *''Les Ecossais en France et les français en Ecosse'' (1862) *''Etudes de philologie comparée sur l'argot'' (1856) *''Le Pays basque'' (1857) *''Le Romancero du Pays Basque'' (1859) *''Histoire du commerce et de la navigation a Bordeaux'' (1867–1871) * in conjunction with Édouard Fournier, ''Histoire des hôtelleries, cabarets, hotels garnis'' (1851–1854)

Edited texts

Michel was one of the most prolific editors of medieval French texts. His ''Libri Psalmorum versio antiqua gallica'' lists 50 of his works, both editions of Medieval texts and original works.Libri Psalmorum versio antiqua gallica
1860 The following is a selected bibliography. * ''Tristan; recueil de ce qui reste des poëmes relatifs à ses aventures'', 1835. Edition of several poems on the subject of

Tristan Tristan (Latin/ Brythonic: ''Drustanus''; ; ), also known as Tristran or Tristram and similar names, is the folk hero of the legend of Tristan and Iseult. While escorting the Irish princess Iseult to wed Tristan's uncle, King Mark of ...

* ''Charlemagne an Anglo-Norman Poem of the twelfth Century'', 1836 * ''Chronique des ducs de Normandie'' par Benoît, trouvère anglo-normand du XII^e siècle, 1836-44. Three volumes, verses in total * '' La Chanson de Roland'', 1837 * ''La Chanson des Saxons'' par

Jean Bodel Jean Bodel (c. 1165 – c. 1210), also spelled Jehan Bodel, was an Old French -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 ... poet who wrote a number of '' chanso ...

, 1839. Two volumes * ''Jordan Fantosme, Chronicle of the War between the English and the Scots in 1173 and 1174'', 1840 * ''Gérard de Rossillon'', 1856 * ''Libri Psalmorum versio antiqua gallica'' (The Oxford Psalter), 1860. Includes variants from the Winchester Psalter and the * ''Le

Roman de la Rose ''Le Roman de la Rose'' (''The Romance of the Rose'') is a medieval poem written in Old French and presented as an allegory">allegorical romantic love is disclosed. Its two authors conceived it as a psychological allegory; throughout the Lover' ...

'', 1864. Two volumes * ''Le Livre des psaumes'' (The Eadwine Psalter), 1876 * ''Les voyages merveilleux de saint Brandan'', 1878 * .

References

* * William Cole. First and Otherwise Notable Editions of Medieval French Texts Printed from 1742 to 1874: A Bibliographical Catalogue of My Collection. Sitges: Cole & Contreras, 2005.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Michel, Francisque Xavier 1809 births 1887 deaths French antiquarians French male non-fiction writers