Léon Gautier

Who was Léon Gautier?

Émile Théodore Léon Gautier was a French literary historian.

He was born at Le Havre, France. He was educated at the École des Chartes, and became successively head of the archives of the département of Haute-Marne and archivist at the Imperial Archives at Paris. In 1871 he became professor of palaeography at the École des Chartes. He was elected member of the Academy of Inscriptions in 1887, and became chief of the historical section of the National Archives in 1893.

Gautier rendered great services to the study of early French literature, the most important of his numerous works on medieval subjects being a critical text with translation and introduction of the Chanson de Roland, and Les Épopées françaises.