GEBHART, EMILE. - French man of letters, b. at Nancy on 19 July 1859, d. at Paris on 21 Apr. 1908. He was a pupil of the French School at Athens and began
his career as a writer with studies of Greek literature and art: Histoire du sentiment de la nature dans l'antiquité grecque et romaine (1860); Praxitèle (1864).
He subsequently became a brilliant Italianist who contributed greatly to the dissemination of Italian thought in France. He was first professor of foreign literatures at Nancy, then of southern literatures at the Sorbonne; in 1904 he entered the Académie française. His works include both licentious texts, which earned him the appellation of « Boccace Lorrain », and mystical themes inspired by Italian religious feeling (s. Francesco d'Assisi and s. Caterina da Siena).
Worth recalling are: Essai sur la peinture de genre dans l'antiquité (1865); De l'Italie (1876); Rabelais, la Renaissance et la Réforme (1877); Les origines de la Renaissance en Italie (1879); Introduction à l'histoire du sentiment religieux en Italie depuis la fin du XIIIe siècle jusqu'au Concile de Trente (1884); L'Italie mystique (1890); Autour d'un tiare (1894); Contes et légendes (1898); Cloches de Noël et de Pâques (1900); D'Ulysse à Pannage (1902).