Marie-Alphonse Dain (better known as Alphonse Dain) was a French Hellenist and

Byzantinist Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, demography, dress, religion/theology, art, literature/epigraphy, music, science, economy, coinage and politics of the Eastern Roman Empire. T ...

. He was born 3 April 1896 at

Chavignon Chavignon () is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Geography The river Ailette forms most of the commune's northern border. Population See also *Communes of the Aisne department The following is ...

(

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; pcd, Ainne) is a French department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne. In 2019, it had a population of 531,345.Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He was a major figure in the field of Greek

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. ...

and

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 grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") ...

and a pioneer of modern scholarship on Byzantine military texts.

Career

Dain’s academic studies were initially delayed by his service in the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Army; ...

during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, which earned him the

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

. He attended the

École du Louvre The École du Louvre is an institution of higher education and grande école located in the Aile de Flore of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France. It is dedicated to the study of archaeology, art history, anthropology and epigraphy. Admission is ...

(1922-1924), where he was a student of Paul Mazon and

Edmond Pottier Edmond François Paul Pottier (13 August 1855, Saarbrücken – 4 July 1934, Paris) was an art historian and archaeologist who was instrumental in establishing the Corpus vasorum antiquorum. He was a pioneering scholar in the study of Pottery of Anc ...

, and was certified in Letters in 1926. He was successively Greek Assistant (1922), Professor of Greek Letters (1938) and Dean of the Faculty of Letters (1954-1964) of the

Institut Catholique de Paris The Institut Catholique de Paris (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 Catholiq ...

. He was also Lecturer (1932) and Director of Studies (1942) of Greek Palaeography at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. He became a Doctor of Letters in 1946, with a thesis concerning the textual history of Aelian the Tactician. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, his active participation in the Resistance earned him the French

Médaille de la Résistance The Resistance Medal (french: Médaille de la Résistance) was a decoration bestowed by the French Committee of National Liberation, based in the United Kingdom, during World War II. It was established by a decree of General Charles de Gaulle on 9 ...

. He was an officer of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

in a military capacity. Since his youth a member of the Association des Études grecques and the Société des Études latines, he served on the board of these societies and as president in 1949 and 1956. He also joined the

Association Guillaume Budé The Association Guillaume Budé, named after the 16th century humanist Guillaume Budé, is a French cultural and learned society dedicated to the promotion of humanities. The current president of the society is the hellenist Jacques Jouanna. The ...

, of which he was Secretary, then Vice-President. As Director of the Collection des Universités de France from 1954 to 1964, he introduced a more rigorous scientific approach to the editing of Greek and Latin texts, which made this series of edition-translations a standard reference collection. He was Executive Secretary of the

International Association of Byzantine Studies International Association of Byzantine Studies (french: Association Internationale des Études Byzantines, AIEB) was launched in 1948. It is an international co-ordinating body that links national Byzantine Studies member groups. Background and A ...

from 1949 to 1962. He was also Director of the Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts of the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

and Member of the Conseil supérieur de l'Éducation nationale. In 1962 he was elected membre libre résidant of the

Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions ( epig ...

. Devoting his studies in particular to Greek palaeography and codicology, he is considered one of the founders of the modern disciplines in France. His publications were especially concerned with the textual histories and manuscript transmission of Greek military writers and to Byzantine legal texts.P. Rance
"Introduction"
in P. Rance and N.V. Sekunda (edd.), ''Greek'' Taktika. ''Ancient Military Writing and its Heritage'' (Gdańsk 2017) 9–64 at 31–32. He also published manuals of

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

language and verse metre.

Selected Publications (books)

* ''Les manuscrits d' Onésandros'' (1930) * ''Inscriptions grecques du

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

. Les textes inédits'' (1933) * ''La tradition du texte d'Héron de Byzance'' (1933) * '' Léon VI le Sage Problemata'' (1935) * ''Inscriptions grecques du musée du Bardo'' (1936) * ''La «Tactique» de Nicéphore Ouranos'' (1937) * ''Sylloge Tacticorum quæ olim «inedita Leonis tactica» dicebatur'' (1938) * '' Anthologie grecque'', vol. IV et VII (1938, 1957) (with P. Waltz, A.-M. Desrousseaux and G. Soury) * ''Le «Corpus perditum»'' (1939) * ''La collection florentine des tacticiens grecs'' (1940) * ''Leçon sur la stylistique grecque'' (1941) * ''L'«Extrait tactique» tiré de Léon VI le Sage'' (1942) * ''Naumachica, partim adhuc inedita'' (1943) * ''Les «Novelles» de Léon VI le Sage'' (1944) (with P. Noailles) * ''Leçon sur la métrique grecque'' (1944) ; * ''Histoire du texte d'Élien le Tacticien, des origines à la fin du Moyen Âge'' (1946) * ''Les manuscrits'' (1949) * ''Les types de phrase en grec'' (1952) * ''Grammaire grecque'' (1952) (with J. de Foucault et P. Poulain) * ''Le «Philétæros» attribué à Hérodien'' (1954) * ''Tragédies de Sophocle'', I: ''Les Trachiniennes, Antigone'' (1955); II: ''Ajax, Œdipe Roi, Électre'' (1958); III: ''Philoctète, Œdipe à Colone'' (1960) * ''Précis de morphologie grecque'' (1957) (with J. de Foucault et P. Poulain) ; * ''Traité de métrique grecque'' (posthumous, 1965) * ''Le «Poliorcétique » d' Énée le Tacticien'' (posthumous, 1967)

References

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External Links

Persée archive
French Byzantinists French hellenists Codicologists Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres