GAUTIER, LÉON. – French medievalist, born in Le Havre on 8 August 1832, died in Paris on 25 August 1897. In 1852 he entered the École des Chartes, where he subsequently occupied the chair of palaeography, which he held for thirty years. In 1887 he was elected a member of the Académie des inscriptions.
His principal activity was devoted to the study of medieval literature, contributing to the dissemination in France of the ancient poems and especially of the Chanson de Roland, whose edition (1872) became a classic. Among his best scholarly works are: Les épopées
