Presentation

Born in Warsaw on March 6 1932. Married with two children . Academy of Sciences, Warsaw (Poland). Died July 13 2008.

Bronislaw Geremek studied at Warsaw University, graduating in 1954, and at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Sorbonne, from 1956 to 1958. Between 1954 and 1960, he held various positions at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, before receiving his doctorate in 1960. From 1960 to 1965, he was director of the Polish Civilization Center at the University of Paris, and a lecturer at the Sorbonne.

He lectures at several European and American universities. He also taught at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw from 1965 to 1985, where he was appointed Assistant Professor in 1972. From 1965 to 1980, he headed the Laboratory for the History of Medieval Culture. He was forced to resign in 1985 for political reasons. He was invited to return as a professor four years later.

From 1989 to the present day, he is a member of the Polish Parliament. At the same time, he chaired  the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Standing Committee on the Constitution and the Parliamentary Club of the Democratic Union and the Union for Freedom.

He is a member of the Academia Europaea, the Universal Academy of Cultures, the European Cultural Society, the Polish Historical Society and the PEN-Club.

He holds honorary doctorates from a number of universities : Tours (1985), Utrecht (1986), Columbia (1989), Bologna (1989), Sorbonne (1990), Oberlin (1990), Université Libre de Bruxelles (1991), Leicester (1992), Brown University (1994).

He has won the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Prize, New York (1986), the Louis Weiss Prize (1989), the Herder Prize, Vienna (1990), and the International Prize of the European Cultural Society (1992).

Officer of the Légion d'honneur (1990).

Guest professor at the Collège de France, he holds the annual International Chair for the 1992-1993 academic year.

Bronislaw Geremek's publications include various works on medieval history (mainly French history) and the history of Polish medieval culture.
His works have been translated into several languages, and one of them was awarded a prize by the Académie Française in 1976.

Chair

Selected bibliography

Main works

  • Marginalized Parisians in the 14th and 15th centuries

    Geremek B., Les Marginaux parisiens aux XIVe et XVe siècles, Flammarion, 1976.

  • Truands and miserables in modern Europe 1350-1600

    Geremek B., Truands et misérables dans l'Europe moderne 1350-1600, Gallimard, 1980.

  • Vagabonds and outcasts in Europe from the 14th to the 16th centuries

    Geremek B., Vagabonds et marginaux en Europe du XIVe au XVIe siècles, Paris, 1980.

  • Salariat dans l'artisanat aux XIVe-XVe siècles. Studies on the labor market in the Middle Ages

    Geremek B., Salariat dans l'artisanat aux XIVe-XVe siècles. Études sur le marché de la main-d'œuvre au Moyen Âge, Paris, EHESS, 1982.

  • The gallows or mercy. Europe and the poor from the Middle Ages to the present day

    Geremek B., La potence ou la pitié. Europe and the poor from the Middle Ages to the present day, Paris, Gallimard, 1987.

  • Sons of Cain. The image of the poor and vagrant in literature from the 15th to 17th centuries

    Geremek B., Les fils de Caïn. L'image des pauvres et des vagabonds dans la littérature du XVe au XVIIe siècles, Flammarion, 1991.

  • Shared passions

    Geremek B. and Duby G., Passions communes, Paris, Le Seuil, 1992.