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François Masai(1909-1979) |
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19.10.1909 : born in Roux. Secondary education (humanities) in Binche. 16.11.1939 : doctorate in philosophy and literature (philosophy) in Brussels (central jury). 15.12.1939 : trainee at the Royal Library of Belgium. 22.01.1941 : first class librarian. 1946 : co-founder and administrator of the publication Scriptorium with Camille Gaspar and Frédéric Lyna. 01.12.1952 : deputy curator of the Manuscripts Section. 22.04.1958 : curator of the Manuscripts Section. 13.04.1961 : junior lecturer in history of philosophy of the Middle Ages at the Université libre de Bruxelles. 15.10.1964 : resigns at the Royal Library. 07.07.1967 : co-founder and chairman of the Centre International de Codicologie, initially Centre de Codicologie. 1968-1970 : professor at the Faculty of Literature and Humanities of the Université de Lille. 12.09.1979 : died in Schaerbeek (Brussels). « On a theoretical level he is one of those who made numerous efforts to turn codicology into an autonomous science » (Pierre Jodogne, « François Masai, codicologue », in Miscellanea Codicologica F. Masai, Dicata MCMLXXIX, Ghent, E. Story-Scientia,
1979, vol. I, p. XLIX.), as well as to establish a clear distinction between this codicology, the archaeology of books and fields such as paleography, epigraphy, papyrology, diplomatics etc. As a professor in the history of the Middle Ages, the history of Byzantium and the history of christianity, as a specialist in monachism and a member of the board of directors of the review Byzantion, he forced himself « not to dissociate the history of ideas from the history of the texts expressing those ideas ». In co-operation with Martin Wittek he supervised the execution and guaranteed the publication of the catalogues of dated manuscripts preserved in Belgium (1968-1972). Portrait : unknown photographer (DR). © CIC, February 2003. |