GEBHART, EMILIE. - French man of letters, b. in Nancy on 19 July 1839, d. in Paris on 21 Apr. 1908. He was a pupil of the French School at Athens and began his writing career 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 an outstanding Italianist who contributed greatly to the spread of Italian thought in France. He was first professor of foreign literatures at Nancy, then professor of Southern literatures at the Sorbonne; in 1904 he was admitted to the Académie française. In his works one finds both licentious traits, which earned him the nickname *Boccone Lorrain*, and mystical spiritual insights into Italian religiosity (St Francis of Assisi and St Catherine of Siena).
Notable works include: *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); *Autori d’un livre* (1894); *Contes et légendes* (1898); *Cloches de Noël et de Pâques* (1900); *D’Ulysse à Panurge* (1902).