Abel Lefranc
| Abel Lefranc | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Abel Jules Maurice Lefranc 27 July 1863 Élincourt-Sainte-Marguerite |
| Died | 24 November 1952 (aged 89) Paris |
| Occupation | Historian |
Maurice Jules Abel Lefranc (27 July 1863 – 26 November 1952) was a historian of French literature, expert on Rabelais, and the principal advocate of the Derbyite theory of Shakespeare authorship.
Lefranc was born in Élincourt-Sainte-Marguerite. After studying at the École Nationale des Chartes, where he wrote a thesis on the history and organization of the town of Noyon until the end of the 13th century (1886). He left to study in Leipzig and Berlin (1887), where he prepared a report on the teaching of history in Germany, which he believed to be the most advanced in the world.
While working with the National Archives, he continued his historical research, turning specifically to the 16th century. In 1893, at the age of 30, he published Histoire du Collège de France depuis les origines jusqu’à la fin du Premier Empire, a history of the Collège de France from its origin to the fall of Napoleon. His intention was to rehabilitate the later period of the Collège's existence, which had been neglected. He became secretary of the Collège de France under three of its directors: Gaston Boissier, Gaston Paris and Emile Levasseur, combining his job with those of archivist and librarian of the institution. He also continued with his own research on the history of literature.
In 1904, on the death of Émile Deschanel, Chair of Modern French Literature at the Collège de France, Lefranc successfully competed for the position against Ferdinand Brunetière, who was considered anti-scientific and overly influenced by religious doctrines. Lefranc had already been appointed lecturer at the École pratique des hautes études, of which he became director in 1911. By this time, he was considered as an important historian and philologist, whose work on John Calvin, Marguerite de Navarre and François Rabelais was authoritative.
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