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

Biography

Hoepffner was born in

Rountzenheim Rountzenheim (; german: Runzenheim; gsw-FR, Runzenem) 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 (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

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

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, and

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 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 Univers ...

, 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 (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

and Old Provencal in Strasbourg. In 1911 he took over Leo Wiese's chair at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

, where he taught until 1918. From 1919 to 1948 he held the chair for Romance philology at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

, and was part of the exodus to

Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat (dialect), Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population ...

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 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 ...

. 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