Marcel Bataillon (May 20, 1895 – June 4, 1977)
Although many of our colleagues knew Marcel Bataillon's work and person much better than I did, I felt it incumbent on me, as his successor in this role, to pay him a traditional tribute.
His death, which occurred at the height of his career, came as a painful surprise to all his friends; for, although he was suffering from a serious and often incurable illness, we could hope for a very long survival.
The entire press reported in detail on the stages of his career and the honors that accompanied them. I shall confine myself here to commenting briefly on his presence at the Collège de France.
Succeeding Paul Hazard, he entered our House in 1945, after a double presentation by Mario Roques and Jean Baruzi; the chair proposed for him was called "Langues et littératures de la Péninsule ibérique et de l'Amérique latine" (Languages and literatures of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America), a title that suited him perfectly. Israel Révah, who has also passed away and was to succeed him twenty years later, was presented in the second row.
Marcel Bataillon's influence on our Assembly was immediately decisive, and many of our colleagues owe their presence here to the proposals he put forward with skill, conviction and persuasive talent.
A director for ten years, from 1955 to 1965, his management was wise and serene. He was always welcoming and always willing to help, always with discretion. With his perfect knowledge of the history and purpose of the Collège de F rance, he devoted a fifty-page article to it in the "Revue de l'Enseignement supérieur", in 1962, which he ended with these words: "Le Collège vit en changeant autant qu'il faut". Indeed, just because an institution is old doesn't mean it should believe itself to be eternal: it needs to know how to evolve, while firmly maintaining what constitutes its originality and specificity.
Marcel Bataillon has helped to lighten our teaching load by reducing the number of lectures we are required to give, and he has succeeded in having some of them replaced by seminar sessions. Better still, he got our supervisory authority to allow certain professors - obviously in limited numbers - to be relieved of all or part of their teaching duties. His requests for leave of absence form a thick file, for his universally recognized value earned him numerous invitations which he did not want to shirk; he was the object of the most flattering tributes and received a wide variety of honorary distinctions. Although he never sought them out, he accepted them with great simplicity. At the presentation of a sword to one of his friends, also a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, he freely translated Ecclesiastes : "There is time for everything, time to weep, time to laugh "
academics, time to be elected a member of the Institut"-
He had been an officer in the 1914 war, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. I found in our archives a printout, dated 1952, where, among many questions, he had to indicate his "rank in the army", he had simply written, in his beautiful elegant handwriting "soldat" . Not "warrior", because he abhorred violence, but "soldier", to peacefully defend the causes he considered just.
He was never afraid to take strong, often courageous stands, but the clarity of his convictions was matched by a great deal of tolerance in all areas. Occasionally, he would make his views clear, but with discretion, never seeking to impose them.
Last May, Professor Del Corral, a learned Spanish historian, was invited by our Assembly, at the request of two of our colleagues, to occupy a State Chair and present several lectures. Marcel Bataillon attended all of them. He also accepted an invitation to lunch at the Spanish Embassy. We were there together and, on the way back to his home, he told me how pleased he was to have renewed relations with this official Spain which, true to his convictions, he had refused to recognize for forty years. Professor Del Corral has just written to one of our honorary colleagues: "The Prince is dead" (as he had long been known to his friends). The term was aptly applied to this tall, slender democrat, "Prince of ideas", "Prince of elevated sentiments". He remained slender and his octogenarian face was handsome, with a beauty that reflected his nobility and distinction.
He was not only respected, but revered. His passing was deeply felt around the world. I have received many testimonials. The Spanish ambassador attended his funeral, and a telegram from Portugal's Minister of Education reached me a few days later.
It is an honor for the Collège de France to have counted among its professors a scholar who, in the eyes of all, identified completely with the discipline he taught.
Alain Horeau, 1977.
Reference
Printed
Horeau A., "Hommage à Marcel Bataillon (20 mai 1895 – 4 juin 1977)", L’annuaire du Collège de France, Paris, Collège de France, n° 78, 1977, p. 47-48.
