Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges

French historian.

From 1860 to 1870 he was professor of history at the faculty of letters at Strasbourg, where he had a brilliant career as a teacher.

In 1864, he published his remarkable volume "La Cité antique" which ranks as one of the masterpieces of the French language in the 19th century.

Fustel de Coulanges was appointed to a lectureship at the École Normale Supérieure in February 1870, to a professorship at the Paris faculty of letters in 1875, and to the chair of medieval history created for him at the Sorbonne in 1878, applying himself to the study of the political institutions of ancient France.

His life was devoted almost entirely to his teaching and his books. In 1875 he was elected member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, and in 1880 accepted the post of director of the École Normale.

He died on 12 September 1889.