Léon Gustave Schlumberger (17 October 1844 – 9 May 1929) was a French historian and numismatist who specialised in the era of the

crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

and the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. His ' (1878–82) is still considered the principal work on the coinage of the crusades. He was awarded the

medal of the Royal Numismatic Society The Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society was first awarded in 1883. It is awarded by the Royal Numismatic Society and is one of the highest markers of recognition given to numismatists. The President and Council award the Medal annually to an "in ...

in 1903. A large portion of his extensive Crusader coin collection is housed in the Cabinet des Médailles a department 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 ...

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. Si ...

Biography

He was born in Guebwiller,

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

, then part of France but later annexed to Germany. From 1863 he studied medicine in

. During the Franco-Prussian War, he served on the French side as a medic. In 1871 he returned to Paris, and was awarded a doctorate in 1872 for a thesis on the respiratory tract. After this he travelled extensively in North Africa, Syria, Asia Minor, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Italy (visiting also Germany) and then turned to research into the history of the Crusader states and the Byzantine Empire. He was elected president of the Societé des Antiquaires de France. In 1884 he was elected a 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 (epigr ...

. In 1903 he was awarded the Medal of the

Royal Numismatic Society The Royal Numismatic Society (RNS) is a learned society and charity based in London, United Kingdom which promotes research into all branches of numismatics. Its patron was Queen Elizabeth II. Membership Foremost collectors and researchers, bo ...

. He was a friend of

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

, who described him as looking like 'a descendent of one of the Gauls on the arch of Titus'. He also corresponded extensively with the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

writer

Penelope Delta Penelope Delta (; 1874, Alexandria, Khedivate of Egypt – 2 May 1941, Athens, Greece) was a Greek author. She is widely celebrated for her contributions to the field of children's literature. Her historical novels have been widely read and ha ...

, which correspondence influenced several of her historical novels set in Byzantine times. He was an ultra-conservative, an active supporter of the

anti-Dreyfusard The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

movement. With

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Printmaking, prints ...

, Jean-Louis Forain and

Jules Lemaître François Élie Jules Lemaître (27 April 1853 – 4 August 1914) was a French critic and dramatist. Biography Lemaître was born in Vennecy, Loiret. He became a professor at the University of Grenoble in 1883, but was already well known for his ...

, he stormed out of the salon of the hostess Genevieve Straus when her friend Joseph Reinach pointed out Dreyfus' innocence. In his memoirs, he wrote of his old friend Charles Haas (a model for Marcel Proust's character Swann): "The delightful Charles Haas, the most likeable and glittering socialite, the best of friends, had nothing Jewish about him except his origins and was not afflicted, as far as I know, with any of the faults of his race, which makes him an exception virtually unique." Following his failure to be elected a member of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

in 1908, Proust, who disliked him, described him as a 'disabused pachyderm'. In his memoirs, Schlumberger, who received a passing mention in Proust's ''

À la recherche du temps perdu ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

'', described the novelist as 'bizarre' and described his books as 'admired by some, and quite incomprehensible to others, including myself'.William C. Carter, ''Marcel Proust: A Life'' (Yale University Press, 2002), page 94. The

has created an award in his name, the Gustave Schlumberger Prize. Winners have included

Joshua Prawer Joshua Prawer ( he, יהושע פרַאוֶור; November 22, 1917 – April 30, 1990) was a notable Israeli historian and a scholar of the Crusades and Kingdom of Jerusalem. His work often attempted to portray Crusader society as a forerunner t ...

and

Denys Pringle Reginald Denys Pringle (born 20 September 1951) is a British archaeologist and medievalist. He is best known for his numerous publications regarding Crusader castles and Crusader-era churches in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the 12th-13th century Crusa ...

Bibliography

* 1878-1882 ''Numismatique de l'Orient Latin'' (Paris) * 1884 ''Les iles des Princes'' (Calmann Lévy, Paris) - a history of the

Princes' Islands The Princes' Islands ( tr, Prens Adaları; the word "princes" is plural, because the name means "Islands of the Princes", el, Πριγκηπονήσια, ''Pringiponisia''), officially just Adalar ( en, Islands); alternatively the Princes' Arch ...

under the Byzantines. * 1890
Un empereur byzantin au dixieme siecle: Nicephore Phocas
' (Paris) - a biography of the emperor Nikephoros II. * 1896-1905
L’Epopée byzantine à la fin du dixième siècle
' (Hachette, Paris, 3 volumes) - a study of Byzantine

epic poetry An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. ...

. * 1898 ''Renaud de Châtillon, prince d’Antioche, seigneur de la terre d’Outre-Jourdain'' (Plon, Paris) - a biography of the crusader

Raynald of Châtillon Raynald of Châtillon (french: Renaud; 11254 July 1187), also known as Reynald or Reginald, was a Crusader knight of French origin but also Prince of Antioch from 1153 to 1160 or 1161, and Lord of Oultrejordain from 1175 until his death. He w ...

. * 1906
Campagnes du roi Amaury Ier de Jérusalem en Egypte, au XIIe siècle
' * 1914
Prise de Saint-Jean-d'Acre, en l'an 1291
' * 1926 ''Le siege la prise et le sac de Constantinople par les Turcs en 1453'', 8e Ed., Paris: Librairie Plon. * 1922/23
Récits De Byzance Et Des Croisades
' (Plon, Paris) * 1927 ''Byzance et les croisades'' (Lib. Paul Geuthner, Paris) * 1934 ''Mes Souvenirs 1844-1928'' (Plon, Paris) - posthumously published recollections of life in the Third Republic * 1962 ''Lettres De Deux Amis'' (Institut Français, Athens) - correspondence between Schlumberger and the novelist

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlumberger, Gustave 1844 births 1929 deaths People from Guebwiller Historians of the Crusades People associated with the Dreyfus affair French Byzantinists Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Burials at Passy Cemetery Scholars of Byzantine history