Jean Gimpel

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Jean Gimpel (born October 10, 1918 in Paris ; died June 16, 1996 in London ) was a French historian specializing in the study of the Middle Ages and essayist. His work deals primarily with questions of the history of technology .

Life

Jean Gimpel was the son of the Parisian art dealer René Gimpel , who was murdered by the Germans in the Neuengamme concentration camp in 1945 . One of the mother's brothers was the British art dealer Joseph Duveen . During the German occupation of France, Jean, like his older brothers Charles and Peter, belonged to the Resistance . He was awarded the Croix de guerre , Médaille de la Résistance and became a member of the Legion of Honor . His brothers continued the art trade after the end of the war, while he learned the diamond trade as a job . Gimpel published his father's diary in 1963. In 1946 he married Catherine Cara from Brittany, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.

historian

Gimpel was a specialist in the 13th century and the history of medieval technology. During the Second World War he was active in the French resistance. After the war he worked in London. His book Die Kathedralenbauer was a success book that achieved a very high circulation. He later compared similar developments in France between 1050 and 1265 with those in the US between 1850 and 1953. He concluded from this that a period of final decline threatened western civilization. His analysis was the focus of an international conference on the fall of the West. He expanded his warning in his final book, The End of the Future . He inspired Ken Follett to write the novel Die Säulen der Erde , as Follett writes in the preface to the German edition of the Kathedralenbauer .

With Lynn White he was the founder of the Villard de Honnecourt Society for Interdisciplinary Research into Medieval Science, Technology and Art (“Avista”) in Kalamazoo / Michigan. Gimpel's work contributed to the rehabilitation of the Middle Ages.

Works (selection)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bullfinch, Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French historian
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1996
Place of death London