Léopold Genicot (Forville, Namur, 18 March 1914 - Ottignies, Louvain-la-Neuve, 11 May 1995) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

and

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

and an activist for the

Walloon Movement The Walloon Movement (french: Mouvement wallon) is an umbrella term for all Belgium, Belgian political movements that either assert the existence of a Walloons, Walloon identity and of Wallonia and/or defend French culture and language within Belg ...

. He established a centre for the study of

rural history In historiography, rural history is a field of study focusing on the history of societies in rural areas. At its inception, the field was based on the economic history of agriculture. Since the 1980s it has become increasingly influenced by social ...

and an influential series of guides to medieval historical sources.

Life

Léopold Genicot was born in Forville,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, in 1914. After earning his BA in

political economy Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...

, he worked as an

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to Document, records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist c ...

in the

Namur Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namu ...

branch of the Royal Archives from 1935 to 1944. During that time, he obtained a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in History in 1937. His work at the archives also allowed him to hide escaped prisoners 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 ...

. In 1935, he was offered a position as professor at the

Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (french: Université de Louvain, link=no; nl, Universiteit Leuven, link=no) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of ...

, receiving

tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

there in 1947. He taught

diplomatic Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

Belgian history The history of Belgium extends before the founding of the modern state of that name in 1830, and is intertwined with those of its neighbors: the Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxembourg. For most of its history, what is now Belgium was either ...

and

medieval history In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. In his research, he was particularly interested in the history of

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

. His contribution to Medieval History is well known, and his books and articles are used today in many medieval history classes. In 1963, persuaded of the academic value of interdisciplinarity, he established a Centre for Rural History (''Centre d'Histoire Rurale'') and later still a Centre for Historical Ecology (''Centre d'écologie historique''), inviting historians to work together with geographers, agronomers, and other specialists in

Earth Sciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four sphere ...

in the newly established ''Institut Interfacultaire d'Études Médiévales'' (better known as the ''Institut d'Études Médiévales''). In 1972 he decided to start publishing a series of small monographs under the title ''Typologie des sources du Moyen Âge occidental'' ("typology of sources for the Western Middle Ages"), devising the editorial plan and writing an introductory volume the same year. The whole of this collection has acquired enormous academic prestige and has continued to be published by

Brepols Brepols is a Belgian publishing house. Once, it was one of the largest printing companies in the world and one of the main employers in Turnhout (Belgium). Besides its printing business, Brepols is also active as a publisher. Formerly well known ...

. This collection was to serve a scholarly base of

medievalists Medievalism is a system of belief and practice inspired by the Middle Ages of Europe, or by devotion to elements of that period, which have been expressed in areas such as architecture, literature, music, art, philosophy, scholarship, and variou ...

ranging from graduate students to professors and has become one of the most successful collections of introductory and bibliographical aids ever presented to the academic community of medieval history scholars. By publishing three to four titles a year, the series has steadily grown to seventy-eight volumes, covering everything in medieval studies and culture, from necrological documents to Latin treatises on the virtues and the vices, from

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

, from

armour Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or fr ...

to other daily hardware.

Political activism

Genicot was a Catholic and a political militant on behalf of the

who had been a member of ''Rénovation wallone'' and a candidate for '' Rassemblement wallon'' in the

European elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until ...

. As a politician, in 1995, by the time of his demise, his patriotic views had become gradually more regionalistic, favouring either an independent Wallonia or its integration into France.

Awards, Honours and Distinctions

In 1964, he received the "Guaillarde d'Argent" and in 1982, he received an honorary degree from the

Catholic University of Lublin John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin ( pl, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, la, Universitas Catholica Lublinensis Ioannis Pauli II, abbreviation KUL), established in 1918. It is the only private college in Poland with the s ...

. In 1988, he was awarded the prize "Personnalité Richelieu" by the Belgium and Luxembourg branch of "Richelieu International". He was the father of the architectural historian Luc-Francis Genicot (1938-2007), and the great uncle of

Garance Genicot Garance Genicot (born in 1974) is a Belgian-American economist and associate professor of economics at Georgetown University. She is a member of the Core Group at Theoretical Research in Development Economics (ThReD), a research associate at the Na ...

and Frédérique Genicot.

Publications

Se

;Monographs This is a partial list of Genicot's published monographs. *
Histoire des routes belges depuis 1704
', Bruxelles: Office de publicité, 1948. 43 pags. *
Principe de Critique Historique
'. 5th ed. Louvain: Université catholique de Louvain, -1954. 54 pags. *
Les lignes de faîte du Moyen Âge
', Paris: Ed. Casterman, 1951. (first english translation:
Contours of the Middle Ages
'. London: Routledge & Keegan Paul, 1967). 394 pags. *
Le XIIIéme siècle européen
', coll. Nouvelle Clio - l'histoire et ses problèmes, . Paris: Puf (Presses Universitaires de France), 1968, 409 pags. *
Histoire de la Wallonie
'. coll. Histoire des provinces - Univers de la France et des pays francophones. Toulouse: Éditions universitaires Édouard Privat, 1973. 502 pags. *
Critique Historique
'. Louvain-la-Neuve: Cabay, 1979. 75 pags. *
La noblesse dans l'Occident médiéval
'. coll. Variorum collected studies series, . London: Variorum Reprints, 1982. 356 pags. *
La Wallonie: un passé pour un avenir
', coll. Écrits politiques wallons, . Mont-sur-Marchienne: Ed. Institut Jules Destrée, 1986, 163 pags. *
Racines d'espérance. Vingt siècles en Wallonie par les textes, les images et les cartes
', Bruxelles: Didier Hatier, 1986. *
Critique historique
' (2nd ed.) coll. Pédasup. Louvain-la-Neuve: Academia, 1987. *
Rural Communities in the Medieval West
', Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. 185 pags. *
Calme Hesbaye, Mon village en Namurois, 1920-1930
'. Bruxelles: Didier Hatier, 1992. 184 pags. ;Articles This is a partial list of Genicot's published articles. * "''Discordiae concordantium'': Sur l'intérêt des textes hagiographiques", ''Académie royale de Belgique: Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres et des Sciences Morales et Politiques'', 5éme ser., , vol. 51 (1965), pp. 65–75. * "Crisis: From the Middle Ages to Modern Times" i
The Cambridge Economic History of Europe from the Decline of the Roman Empire
vol.I (2nd ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966), ch. 8, pp. 660-742. *
Naissance, fonction et richesse dans l'ordonnance de la société médiévale. Le cas de la Noblesse du Nord-Ouest du Continent
in ''Problèmes de stratification sociale. Actes du Colloque international de Paris, 1966''. Louvain: Centre belge d'histoire rurale, , 1968. pp. 83–100. *
L'informatique au service de l'histoire des institutions et de la société
in ''La Lexicographie du latin médiéval et ses rapports avec les recherches actuelles sur la civilisation du Moyen âge (colloque international du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris, 18–21 October 1978)''. coll. Colloques internationaux du CNRS, n° 581. Paris: CNRS, 1981. 547 p. *
Villes et campagnes dans les Pays-Bas médiévaux
in ''Acta historica et archaeologica mediaevalia'', , 1986, pp. 163–192. *
Un Equilibrage dans l'histoire médiévale: L'étude du monde rural
in ''Révue d'histoire ecclesiastique'' vol. 81, (1986) pp. 501–527. *
The Nobility in Medieval Francia: Continuity, Break or Evolution?
in Fredric L. Cheyette (ed.) ''Lordship and Community in Medieval Europe - Selected Readings''. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1968, pp. 128–136. (1st. ed., 435 p.) ee Ch. 4, XII ;Editions This is a partial list of Genicot's (co-)edited articles. * Léopold Genicot and Paul Tombeur,
Index Scriptorum Operumque Latino-Belgicorum medii Aevi. Nouveau répertoire des oeuvres mediolatines belges
', 5 volumes (Bruxelles: Academie royale de Belgique. Comité national du dictionnaire du latin médiéval, 1973-1979). * Léopold Genicot, ''La Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental'', general editor (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1972-).

Life

Political activism

Awards, Honours and Distinctions

Publications

References

Further reading