Louis René Bréhier (; 5 August 1868 – 13 October 1951) 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 species; as well as the ...
who specialized in
Byzantine studies. His brother was the philosopher
Émile Bréhier.
Biography
Louis Bréhier was born in
Brest, France
Brest (; ) is a port, port city in the Finistère department, Brittany (administrative region), Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of a peninsula and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an impor ...
on 5 August 1868.
["Bréhier, Louis René", ''The Catholic Encyclopedia and Its Makers'', New York, the Encyclopedia Press, 1917, p. 18]
/ref> He studied history and literature in Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, obtaining his agrégation in history in 1892. Afterwards, he worked as a schoolteacher in Montauban, Bourges, Reims and Saint-Quentin (1892–99). In 1899 he received his doctorate at the Sorbonne with the dissertation ''Le schisme oriental du XIe siècle'' ("The Eastern Schism in the 11th Century"). Bréhier became a professor at the University of Paris, teaching ancient and medieval history and geography. He presented a paper on "Les colonies d'Orientaux en Occident du Moyen Age" at the Thirteenth Congress of Orientalists in Hamburg in 1902.[
From 1903 to 1938 he was professor of ancient and medieval history in Clermont-Ferrand. His travels were largely confined to the Mediterranean world that included an archaeological mission to Mount Athos in 1930. He settled in Reims after World War II and died in this city in 1951.][Institut national d'histoire de l'art]
biography
Bréhier's best known work was the three-volume ''Le Monde byzantin'' ("The Byzantine World"). He was a specialist of Byzantine iconography, and in 1924 published an influential treatise on Byzantine art titled ''L'Art byzantin''. In 1935 he became a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.[ Bréhier contributed many articles to the ''Catholic Encyclopedia''.][
]
Selected publications
* ''l'égypte de 1798 à 1900'' (1898)
* ''De Graecorum judiciorum origine'' (1899)
* ''Le Schisme oriental du 11e siècle'' (1899)
* ''La Querelle des images'' (1904)
* ''L'Église et l'Orient au Moyen Âge : les croisades''
*Articles in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)
* ''Le travail historique'' (1908)
* ''L'Auvergne'' (1912)
* ''La Cathédrale de Reims. Une œuvre française'', Paris 1916
* ''L'art chrétien, son développement iconographique des origines à nos jours'' (1918)
* ''Les églises romanes''
* ''L'homme dans la sculpture romane''
* ''Études archéologiques : Le sarcophage des Carmes-Déchaux ; Les anciens inventaires de la cathédrale : Le Bible historiée de Clermont''
* ''Les survivances du rite impérial romain: à propos des rites shintoïstes'' (1920)
* ''L'Art byzantin'', Paris 1924
* ''L'Art en France, des invasions barbares à l'époque romane'', Paris 1930
* ''Le Monde byzantin'', Paris 1947-50 (3 Volumes)
** Volume 1: ''Vie et mort de Byzance''
** Volume 2: ''Les Institutions de l'Empire byzantin''
** Volume 3: ''La civilisation byzantine''
Translation or collaboration
* ''Histoire anonyme de la première croisade, éditée et traduite par Louis Bréhier'', (Anonymous history of the First Crusade
The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest ...
, edited and translated into French by Louis Bréhier), Paris 1924.[Bréhier, L. (1924)]
Histoire anonyme de la première croisade
Paris: H. Champion.
References
External links
Publications by Louis Bréhier
in the OPAC Regesta Imperii
* ttps://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Louis+Br%C3%A9hier%22&gws_rd=ssl Google SearchPublished works by Louis Bréhier.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brehier, Louis
20th-century French historians
Historians of the Crusades
Writers from Brest, France
University of Paris alumni
1868 births
1951 deaths
French Byzantinists
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
French male non-fiction writers
Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia
19th-century French historians