Bréhier, Louis
BRÉHIER, LOUIS
Byzantine scholar; b. Brest, France, Aug. 5, 1868; d. Reims, Oct. 13, 1951. Bréhier studied at the Sorbonne, where he received the licentiate in 1890, was declared agrégé in 1892, and received the doctorate in 1899. After teaching in four lycées, he was appointed to the chair of ancient and medieval history at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in 1898, remaining there until his retirement in 1938. Bréhier lived and worked in isolation at Clermont-Ferrand and, after his retirement, at Reims. An extraordinarily prolific scholar, he wrote some 30 books and hundreds of articles. His interests centered on the history of Greek-Latin relations during the Middle Ages. The first of his published studies was Le Schisme oriental du XI e siècle (Paris 1900). His essay on the papacy and the Crusades, L'Église et l'Orient au moyen-âge, has passed through many editions and is one of his bestknown works. Bréhier wrote much on the history of art, including L'Art chrétien (Paris 1918), L'Art byzantin (Paris 1924), La Sculpture et les arts mineurs byzantins (Paris 1936), and Le Style roman (Paris 1946). His crowning achievement was a three-volume synthesis of Byzantine history and civilization, Le Monde byzantin (Paris 1947–50).
Bibliography: p. lemerle, Revue historique 208 (1952) 380–382. r. dussaud, Syria 28 (1951) 362–363. p. guilland, Byzantinoslavica 12 (1951) 287.
[j. a. brundage]