About the Author

L�on Gautier was a French literary historian who was born at Le Havre, France in 1832. He was educated at the �cole des Chartes, and became successively head of the archives of the d�partement of Haute-Marne and archivist at the Imperial Archives at Paris. In 1871 he became professor of palaeography at the �cole 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 with numerous works on medieval subjects.