QUINET, EDGAR. - French historian and politician, b. at Bourg-en-Bresse on 17 Feb. 1803, d. at Paris on 27 March 1875. In 1839 he was called to teach foreign literatures at the Academy of Lyon, whence in 1841 he moved to the chair of Romance literatures at the Collège de France. Suspended in 1846 by Guizot for his violent positions against the Jesuits and ultramontanism (Catholic Church), he took part in the February revolution and was a deputy to the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies; an exile from 1852 in Brussels and in French Switzerland, he returned to Paris upon the fall of Napoleon III and again sat on the extreme left of the Legislative Assembly.
From childhood he had read with enthusiasm the masterpieces of Italian and English literature, especially those of the Renaissance. He translated Herder's Philosophy of History, traveled in England, Germany, Greece and Italy, maturing there a romantic taste which he gave free rein in the mystery play Ahasvérus (on the legend of the Wandering Jew) and expressed in books and articles acute observations on the future of Europe. Removed from teaching, he expressed organically his ideas on Italian history in the two volumes on the Révolutions d'Italie (1848-52), which had notable influence on the subsequent works of Giuseppe Ferrari (1858) and of Francesco De Sanctis (1872). Among the other works of his exile, Histoire de mes idées; Philosophie de l'histoire de France (1858); La Révolution (1865), he continued to devote some to our country, France et Italie; La Question Romaine devant l'histoire (1867).
Placed on the Index are the works of Q. that most reflect his violent spirit against the Catholic Church: Ahasvérus (decree 29 Jan. 1835); Le génie des religions (decree 8 Aug. 1844); Allemagne et Italie (decree 15 Apr. 1848); La Révolution (decree 17 Dec. 1866).
His wife published posthumously, in thirty volumes, his complete works (Paris 1877-82), and composed a biography of him in two parts, Avant and Depuis l'exil (ibid. 1888-1889).