Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges (; 18 March 1830 – 12 September 1889) was a French
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 ...
. Joseph M. McCarthy argues that his first great book, ''
The Ancient City'' (1864), was based on his in-depth knowledge of the primary Greek and Latin texts. The book argued that:
:Religion was the sole factor in the evolution of ancient Greece and Rome, the bonding of family and state was the work of religion, that because of ancestor worship the family, drawn together by the need to engage in the ancestral cults, became the basic unit of ancient societies, expanding to the ''gens'', the Greek
phratry
In ancient Greece, a phratry ( grc, φρᾱτρῐ́ᾱ, phrātríā, brotherhood, kinfolk, derived from grc, φρᾱ́τηρ, phrā́tēr, brother, links=no) was a group containing citizens in some city-states. Their existence is known in most I ...
, the Roman tribe, to the patrician city state, and that decline in religious belief and authority in the moral crisis provoked by Roman wealth and expansion doomed the republic and resulted in the triumph of Christianity and the death of the ancient city-state.
Biography
Born in
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 ...
, of
Breton
Breton most often refers to:
*anything associated with Brittany, and generally
** Breton people
** Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany
** Breton (horse), a breed
**Ga ...
descent, after studying at the
École Normale Supérieure
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
he was sent to the
French School at Athens
The French School at Athens (french: École française d’Athènes, EfA; el, Γαλλική Σχολή Αθηνών ''Gallikí Scholí Athinón'') is one of the seventeen foreign archaeological institutes operating in Athens, Greece.
History ...
. In 1853, he directed some excavations in
Chios
Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of mastic ...
, and wrote an historical account of the island.
After his return he filled various educational offices, and took his doctorate with two theses, ''Quid Vestae cultus in institutis veterum privatis publicisque valuerit'' and ''Polybe, ou la Grèce conquise par les Romains''
[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/715050447 ] (1858). In these works his distinctive qualities were already revealed. His minute knowledge of the language of the Greek and Roman institutions, coupled with his low estimation of the conclusions of contemporary scholars, led him to go directly to the original texts, which he read without political or religious bias. When, however, he had succeeded in extracting from the sources a general idea that seemed to him clear and simple, he attached himself to it as if to the truth itself.
From 1860 to 1870 he was a professor of history at the
faculty of letters at Strasbourg, where he had a brilliant career as a teacher, but never yielded to the influence exercised by the German universities in the field of classical and Germanic antiquities.
It was at Strasbourg that he published his remarkable volume ''
La Cité antique
''The Ancient City'' (french: La Cité antique), published in 1864, is the most famous book of the French historian Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges (1830–1889). Taking inspiration from René Descartes,Fustel wrote late in life, "Jules Simon explai ...
'' (1864), in which he showed forcibly the part played by religion in the political and social evolution of
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. The book was so consistent throughout, so full of ingenious ideas, and written in so striking a style, that it ranks as one of the masterpieces of the
French language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
in the 19th century. By this literary merit, Fustel set little store, but he clung tenaciously to his theories. When he revised the book in 1875, his modifications were very slight, and it is conceivable that, had he recast it, as he often expressed the desire to do in the last years of his life, he would not have abandoned any part of his fundamental thesis.
Fustel de Coulanges was appointed to a lectureship at the École Normale Supérieure in February 1870, to a professorship at the Paris faculty of letters in 1875, and to the chair of medieval history created for him at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
in 1878, he applied himself to the study of the political institutions of ancient France. The invasion of France by the German armies during the
Franco-Prussian War attracted his attention to the Germanic invasions under the Roman Empire. Pursuing the theory of
J.-B. Dubos, but also transforming it, he maintained that those invasions were not marked by the violent and destructive character usually attributed to them; that the penetration of the German barbarians into
Gaul
Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
was a slow process; that the Germans submitted to the imperial administration; that the political institutions of the
Merovingian
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...
s had their origins in the Roman laws at least as much as, if not more than, in German usages; and, consequently, that there was no conquest of Gaul by the Germans.
This thesis he sustained in his ''Histoire des institutions politiques de l'ancienne France'', the first volume of which appeared in 1874. It was the author's original intention to complete this work in four volumes, but as the first volume was keenly attacked in Germany as well as in France, Fustel was forced in self-defense to recast the book entirely. He re-examined all the texts and wrote a number of dissertations, which were dominated by his general idea and characterised by a total disregard for the results of such historical disciplines as diplomatic. From this crucible issued an entirely new work, less well arranged than the original, but rich in facts and critical comments. The first volume was expanded into three volumes, ''La Gaule romaine'' (1891), ''L'Invasion germanique et la fin de l'empire'' (1891) and ''La Monarchie franque'' (1888), followed by three other volumes, ''L'Alleu et le domaine rural pendant l'époque mérovingienne'' (1889), ''Les Origines du système féodal: le bénéfice et le patronat ...'' (1890) and ''Les Transformations de la royauté pendant l'époque carolingienne'' (1892).
Thus, in six volumes, he had carried the work no farther than the Carolingian period. The dissertations not embodied in his work were collected by himself and (after his death) by his pupil,
Camille Jullian
Camille Jullian (15 March 1859 – 12 December 1933) was a French historian, philologist, archaeologist and historian of literature.
A Professor of ancient history and classics at the University of Bordeaux from 1891, Jullian was awarded a chai ...
, and published as volumes of miscellanies: ''Recherches sur quelques problèmes d'Histoire'' (1885), dealing with the Roman colonate, the land system in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
; the Germanic mark, and the judiciary organization in the kingdom of the Franks; ''Nouvelles recherches sur quelques problèmes d'histoire'' (1891); and ''Questions historiques'' (1893), which contains his paper on Chios and his thesis on
Polybius
Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail.
Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...
.
His life was devoted almost entirely to his teaching and his books. In 1875, he was elected member of the
Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques
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 philosophy, f ...
, and in 1880 reluctantly accepted the post of director of the École Normale. Without intervening personally in French politics, he took a keen interest in the questions of administration and social reorganization arising from the fall of the imperialist régime and the disasters of the war.
He wished the institutions of the present to approximate more closely to those of the past and devised for the new French constitution a body of reforms which reflected the opinions he had formed upon the
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
at Rome and in ancient France. But these were dreams which did not hold him long, and he would have been scandalised had he known that his name was subsequently used as the emblem of a political and religious party. He died at
Massy (then called
Seine-et-Oise
Seine-et-Oise () was the former department of France encompassing the western, northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris.empress Eugénie
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...
— his sole aim was to ascertain the truth, and in the defence of truth his polemics against what he imagined to be the blindness and insincerity of his critics sometimes assumed a character of harshness and injustice. But, in France at least, these critics were the first to render justice to his learning, his talents and his disinterestedness.
Works
''Mémoire sur l'île de Chio,''Paris, 1856.
* ''Quid Vestæ Cultus in Institutis Veterum Privatis Publicisque Valuerit?,'' T. Jeunet, 1858.
''Polybe ou la Grèce Conquise par les Romains,''T. Jeunet, 1858.
''La Cité Antique,''Durand, 1864.
* ''Histoire des Institutions Politiques de l'Ancienne France:''
*
''La Gaule Romaine.''*
''L'Invasion Germanique et la Fin de l'Empire.''*
''La Monarchie Franque.''*
''L'Alleu et le Domaine Rural pendant l'Époque Mérovingienne.''*
''Les Origines du Système Féodal.''*
''Les Transformations de la Royauté pendant l'Époque Carolingienne.''''Recherches sur Quelques Problèmes d'Histoire,''Paris, Hachette, 1885.
* ''Nouvelles Recherches sur Quelques Problèmes d'Histoire,'' Hachette, 1891.
''Questions Historiques,''Hachette, 1893.
''Questions Contemporaines,''Hachette, 1917
st Pub. 1916
* ''Leçons à l'Impératrice sur les Origines de la Civilisation Française,'' Hachette, 1930.
Works in English translation
''The Ancient City: A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome,''Imperium Press, 2020.
''The Ancient City: A Study on the Religion, Laws and Institutions of Greece and Rome,''Lee & Shepard, 1877.
''The Origin of Property in Land,''Sonnenschein, 1891.
Historiography
* ''Les communaux et le domaine à l'époque franque : réponse à m. Fustel de Coulanges'', Glasson, Ernest-Désiré; Paris: F. Pichon, 1890.
* ''Numa-Denis Fustel de Coulanges'', Ledos, Eugène-Gabriel; Paris : Revue des Questions historiques, 1890.
* ''Fustel de Coulanges'', Guiraud, Paul; Paris: Hachette, 1896.
* ''Fustel de Coulanges'', Labelle, Eugène; Paris: Bloud, 1913.
* ''L'histoire des institutions politiques de Fustel de Coulanges'', Lazare de Gérin, Richard; Paris: Société française d'éditions littéraires et techniques, E. Malfère, 1936.
* ''The historical thought of Fustel de Coulanges'', Herrick, Jane; Washington, Catholic University of America Press, 1954.
* ''Le XIXe siècle et l'histoire : le cas Fustel de Coulanges'', Hartog, François; Paris: Seuil, 2001.
See also
*
Quia Emptores
''Quia Emptores'' is a statute passed by the Parliament of England in 1290 during the reign of Edward I that prevented tenants from alienating their lands to others by subinfeudation, instead requiring all tenants who wished to alienate the ...
References
Citations
Sources
*
Further reading
* DiVanna, Isabel. ''Writing History in the Third Republic,'' Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010
excerpt and text search*
Fisher, H. A. L.
Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher H.A.L. Fisher: ''A History of Europe, Volume II: From the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century to 1935'', Glasgow: Fontana/Collins, 1984, p. i. (21 March 1865 – 18 April 1940) was an English historian, educator, a ...
br>
"Fustel de Coulanges,"''The English Historical Review,'' Vol. V, 1890.
* Herrick, Jane. ''The Historical thought of Fustel de Coulanges,'' Catholic University of America, 1954.
*
Momigliano, Arnaldo. "La Cité Antique de Fustel de Coulanges." In ''Problèmes d'Historiographie Ancienne et Moderne,'' Gallimard, 1983.
* Hartog, François. ''Le XIXème Siècle et l'Histoire. Le Cas Fustel de Coulanges,'' Presses Universitaires de France, 1988.
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fustel De Coulanges, Numa Denis
1830 births
1889 deaths
Writers from Paris
University of Strasbourg faculty
University of Paris faculty
École Normale Supérieure alumni
École Normale Supérieure faculty
Members of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques
French medievalists
Historians of antiquity
Members of the French School at Athens
19th-century French historians