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

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. He fought for the French army in

World War I 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 ...

. 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 (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...

forced him to resign in 1940, Cohen emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In February 1942 he helped found the New York

École libre des hautes études The École Libre des Hautes Études ( ‘Free School for Advanced Studies’) was a "university-in-exile" for French academics in New York during the Second World War. It was chartered by the French (the Free French) and Belgian governments-in-e ...

with

Henri Focillon Henri Focillon (7 September 1881 – 3 March 1943) was a French art historian. He was the son of the printmaker Victor-Louis Focillon. He was Director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. Professor of Art History at the University of Lyon, at t ...

and

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

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

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

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