Jehan AlainJehan-Aristide Paul Alain (ʒɑ̃ aʁist alɛ̃; 3 February 1911 – 20 June 1940) was a French organist, composer, and soldier. Born into a family of musicians, he learned the organ from his father and a host of other teachers, becoming a composer at 18, and composing until the outbreak of the Second World War 10 years later. His compositional style was influenced by the musical language of the earlier Claude Debussy, as well as his interest in music, dance and philosophy of the far east.
Bernard LazareBernard Lazare (14 June 1865, Nîmes – 1 September 1903, Paris) was a French literary critic, political journalist, polemicist, and anarchist. He is known as the first Dreyfusard. He was born Lazare Marcus Manassé Bernard (he later switched his first name and last name) in Nîmes on 15 June 1865. His bourgeois family was Jewish, although not very religious. Lazare's initial contact with symbolists introduced him to anarchism and led to his career in literary criticism.
École Nationale des ChartesThe École Nationale des Chartes (École nationale des chartes, literally National School of Charters) is a French grande école and a constituent college of Université PSL, specialising in the historical sciences. It was founded in 1821, and was located initially at the National Archives, and later at the Palais de la Sorbonne (5th arrondissement). In October 2014, it moved to 65 rue de Richelieu, opposite the Richelieu-Louvois site of the National Library of France.
Spit cakeA spit cake is a European-styled cake made with layers of dough or batter deposited, one at a time, onto a tapered cylindrical rotating spit. The dough is baked by an open fire or a special oven, rotisserie-style. Generally, spit cakes are associated with celebrations such as weddings and Christmas. The spit can be dipped in a thin dough, or the dough can be poured or rolled on the spit. This cake group may have originated in the classical era, around 400 BC, when similar large cakes were prepared on spits for Dionysiac feasts.
Roland MousnierRoland Émile Mousnier (munje; Paris, September 7, 1907– February 8, 1993, Paris) was a French historian of the early modern period in France and of the comparative studies of different civilizations. Mousnier was born in Paris and received his education at the École pratique des hautes études. Between 1932 and 1947, he worked as a school teacher in Rouen and Paris. During the Second World War, Mousnier was a member of the French Resistance. In 1947, he was appointed as a professor at Strasbourg University, before moving to the Sorbonne in 1955, where he remained until 1977.
Charles Sorel, sieur de SouvignyCharles Sorel, sieur de Souvigny (c. 1602 – 7 March 1674) was a French novelist and general writer. Very little is known of his life except that in 1635 he was historiographer of France. He wrote on science, history and religion, but is only remembered for his novels. He tried to destroy the vogue for the pastoral romance by writing a novel of adventure, the Histoire comique de Francion (first edition in seven volumes, 1623; second edition in twelve volumes, 1633).
Marie de GournayMarie de Gournay (maʁi də ɡuʁnɛ; 6 October 1565, Paris – 13 July 1645) was a French writer, who wrote a novel and a number of other literary compositions, including The Equality of Men and Women (Égalité des hommes et des femmes, 1622) and The Ladies' Grievance (Grief des dames, 1626). She insisted that women should be educated. Gournay was also an editor and commentator of Michel de Montaigne. After Montaigne's death, Gournay edited and published his Essays. She was born in Paris in 1565.
Charles Barbier de MeynardCharles Adrien Casimir Barbier de Meynard (6 February 1826 – 31 March 1908), born at sea on a ship from Constantinople to Marseille, was a nineteenth-century French historian and orientalist. His studies focused on the early history of Islam and the Caliphate. Among his other works, he completed Julius von Mohl's translation of Ferdowsi's Shahnama, with the French title Livre des Rois. This was the first European translation of the pivotal work made available to a wide audience.
Asterius of AmaseaSaint Asterius of Amasea (Greek: Άστέριος Αμασείας, c. 350 - c. 410 AD) was made Bishop of Amasea between 380 and 390 AD, after having been a lawyer. He was born in Cappadocia and probably died in Amasea in modern Turkey, then in Pontus. Significant portions of his lively sermons survive, which are especially interesting from the point of view of art history, and social life in his day. Asterius, Bishop of Amasea is not to be confused with the Arian polemicist Asterius the Sophist. His feast day is October 30.
Charles de VillersCharles François Dominique de Villers (4 November 1765 – 26 February 1815) was a French philosopher. He was mainly responsible for translating the philosophy of Immanuel Kant into the French language. Villers was born in Boulay-Moselle, France. He studied at the Benedictine College in Metz, and then became a student of the School of Applied Artillery of Metz. He attained the rank of captain. Like other officers of that era, such as the artillery colonel Armand Marie Jacques de Chastenet of Puysegur, he became interested in animal magnetism.
