Jean Vezin (30 July 1933 – 30 August 2020) was a French librarian and

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

historian, specializing in Latin

palaeography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

and

codicology Codicology (; from French ''codicologie;'' from Latin , genitive , "notebook, book" and Greek , ''-logia'') is the study of codices or manuscript books. It is often referred to as "the archaeology of the book," a term coined by François Masai. ...

Biography

Vezin was born in

Vannes Vannes (; , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, French department of Morbihan, Brittany (administrative region), Brittany, northwestern mainland France. It was founded over 2,000 years ago. History Celtic ...

. A student at the

École Nationale des Chartes The École Nationale des Chartes (; ) is a French ''grande école'' and a constituent college of Université PSL, specialising in the auxiliary sciences of history, historical sciences. It was founded in 1821, and was located initially at the A ...

, he obtained the archivist palaeographer diploma in 1958 with a thesis entitled ''Les scriptoria d’Angers au XIe siècle'' then joined the

Casa de Velázquez The ''Casa de Velázquez'' is a French school in Spain modelled on the Villa Médicis in Rome, and Villa Abd-el-Tif in Algeria.''75 aniversario de la Casa de Velázquez. Memoria gráfica 1928-2003'', Madrid, Casa de Velázquez, 2006, 182 p. - acc ...

. A curator at the manuscript department of the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

from 1962 to 1974, he also taught palaeography at the Institute for Latin Studies of the

Paris-Sorbonne University Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; ) was a public university, public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Paris. In 2018, it m ...

, as well as palaeography and codicology at the

École nationale supérieure des sciences de l'information et des bibliothèques The École nationale supérieure des sciences de l'information et des bibliothèques (ENSSIB; French for ''National Superior School of Information Science and Libraries'') is a French ''grande école'' based in Villeurbanne, near Lyon. It is admi ...

. In 1974, he was elected a research director at the

École pratique des hautes études The (), abbreviated EPHE, is a French postgraduate top level educational institution, a . EPHE is a constituent college of the Université PSL (together with ENS Ulm, Paris Dauphine or Ecole des Mines). The college is closely linked to É ...

. He was co-director of the ''Chartæ Latinæ Antiquiores'' and the ''Monumenta palæographica Medii Ævi''. He also headed the librarians-documentalists school of the

Institut catholique de Paris The Institut catholique de Paris (, abbr. ICP), known in English as the Catholic University of Paris (and in Latin as ''Universitas catholica Parisiensis''), is a private university located in Paris, France. History: 1875–present The Institut ...

from 1985 to 1998. The author of more than two hundred articles, Vezin was elected a corresponding 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 ...

on 21 November 1997.

References

External links

*
''La répartition du travail dans les « scriptoria » carolingiens''
on Persée
''Doctor honoris causa'' Jean Vézin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vezin, Jean Writers from Vannes 1933 births 2020 deaths French medievalists French palaeographers French librarians Latin–French translators Academic staff of the École pratique des hautes études Commandeurs of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres École Nationale des Chartes alumni Corresponding members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French male writers Codicologists