Halphen, Louis

Born Feb. 4, 1880, in Paris; died there on Oct. 7, 1950. French medievalist historian; specialist in French history (mainly political) of the eighth-12th centuries, especially the period of the Carolingians. Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres from 1933. Professor at the University of Bordeaux from 1910 to 1928 and at the Sorbonne from 1934.

During World War II, Halphen was persecuted by the German fascist occupation forces and fled from France; he returned to Paris in 1944. Halphen did a large amount of research on original sources. From 1923 on, he was in charge of Classics of Medieval French History,one of the best series on medieval sources published in the 20th century. He published, jointly with P. Sagnac, the series Peoples and Civilizations (1926–52), of which Halphen wrote volumes 5 and 6.