Gustave Cohen (24 December 1879 – 10 June 1958) was a French medievalist. Cohen was born and grew up in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. He fought for the French army in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. He became professor of

medieval literature Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...

at the Sorbonne, encouraging his students to put on dramatic productions of medieval material. After the

Vichy government Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...

forced him to resign in 1940, Cohen emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In February 1942 he helped found the New York

École libre des hautes études The ( 'Free School for Advanced Studies') was a "university-in-exile" for French academics in New York City, New York during the Second World War. It was chartered by the French (the Free French) and Belgian governments-in-exile and located at the ...

with Henri Focillon and

Jacques Maritain Jacques Maritain (; 18 November 1882 – 28 April 1973) was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised as a Protestant, he was agnostic before converting to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive Thomas Aqui ...

. He established the Entretiens de Pontigny, symposiums of French cultural activity held at

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, United States. It is the oldest member of the h ...

in 1942, 1943 and 1944.

Publications

* ''Histoire de la mise en scène dans le théâtre religieux français du Moyen Âge'', H. Champion, 1906 * ''Rabelais et le théâtre'', Champion, 1911 * ''Mystères et moralités du manuscrit 617 de Chantilly'', Champion, 1920 * ''Écrivains français en Hollande dans la première moitié du XVIIe siècle'', Champion, 1921 * ''Ronsard, sa vie et son œuvre'', Boivin, 1924 * ''Le livre de conduite du régisseur et le compte des dépenses pour le Mystère de la Passion joué à Mons en 1501'', Strasbourg, 1925 * ''Le Théâtre en France au Moyen Âge'', Rieder, 1928-1931 * ''La Comédie latine en France au XIIe siècle'', Les Belles Lettres, 1931 * ''Un Grand Romancier d'amour et d'aventure du XIIe siècle : Chrétien de Troyes et son œuvre'', Boivin, Paris, 1931 * ''Le Champfleury de Geoffroy Tory'', Charles Bosse, 1932 * ''Essai d'explication du Cimetière marin'', Gallimard, 1933 * ''Le Miracle de Théophile'', Delagrave, 1933 * ''Le Jeu d'Adam et Ève', Delagrave, 1935 * ''Le Jeu de Robin et Marion'', Delagrave, 1935 * ''Lettres aux Américains'', Montréal, Éditions de l'arbre, 1942 * ''Anthologie de la littérature française au Moyen Âge'', Delagrave, 1946 * ''La Grande Clarté du Moyen Âge'', New York, Maison française d'édition, 1943 * ''Ceux que j'ai connus'', Montréal, Éditions de l'arbre, 1946 * ''Le Théâtre français en Belgique au Moyen Âge'', La Renaissance du Livre, Bruxelles, 1953

References

External links

Entretiens de Pontigny Collection
at

''The Pontigny Colloquia. Artists, Intellectuals, and World War II''
at

1879 births 1958 deaths French medievalists 19th-century French Jews People from Saint-Josse-ten-Noode 20th-century French historians Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America {{France-academic-bio-stub