The Collège de France, from François I to online courses

A richly illustrated and documented collective work recapitulates the history of the Collège de France, and traces its astonishing continuity since its founder François Ier to modern online courses.

A tradition at the forefront of modernity

Few academic institutions, at the global level, can boast of such a record: almost uninterrupted operation since Francis Ierten Nobel Prizes obtained by its members between 1927 and 2012, the reception of scholars of the stature of Marcelin Berthelot, Henri Bergson, Paul Valéry, Irène Curie, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Georges Dumézil and Serge Haroche. However, few remain so discreet. The Collège de France is indeed a paradoxical organization. Open to all (the author of these lines, then a student, listened to Pierre Bourdieu expose the relationships between Degas’ painting and politics), it nevertheless remains little-known. Three of its professors, Antoine Compagnon, Pierre Corvol and John Scheid, have just published a work on the history of the institution, embellished by iconography as rich as it is unique. Far from being a purely commemorative book, it describes in a clinical manner an astonishing model as it combines enduring traditions and permanent daring (operation, discoveries, disciplinary fields).

First of all, why was the College founded, when the University of Paris already existed ? We must return to the European context of the beginning of the XVIe century. Humanism encourages both scientific research and the rereading of ancient languages. These scholarly needs led between 1516 and 1520 to the creation of colleges, “ three languages » in Louvain, from “ Corpus Christi » in Oxford or “ St. John’s » in Cambridge (pp. 16-17). In France, this desire comes up against two obstacles. The first is that of royal finances, which are reluctant to new expenses. The second, more important, is the blocking of the University of Paris, withdrawn into traditional knowledge and its statutes guaranteed by the king. Francis Ier then inaugurates a recurring practice in French history – whether monarchical or republican –, namely the opening of establishments to bypass and compete with universities.

The emergence takes time: Erasmus, anticipated, discarded in favor of the ancient languages ​​specialist Guillaume Budé. THE “ Royal College », planned from 1517, only recruited its first readers in 1530, and only in three subjects (Hebrew, Greek, mathematics). To reassure the University of Paris, it has neither doctors nor masters, although it is attached to the latter (the teachers are officially Readers of the University of Paris). He did not have his own premises either: it was not until 1610 that the first stone of his building was laid. Problems with premises persisted: between 1912 and 1914, Henri Bergson’s listeners established a petition to protest against the cramped conditions of the classroom (p. 84).

From the beginning, however, the institution acquired its specificities (p. 20-27). The teachers are versatile, with lessons changing as needed. The college opened up to new or neglected disciplines by the University: thus, oriental languages ​​and civilizations (including Arabic in 1587), experimental sciences. The physician-anatomist Vidus Vidius, reader from 1542 to 1548, or the mathematician Pierre Gassendi, reader from 1645 to 1655, are among these innovative scientists. Above all, readers gradually codified the method of appointment: they gained the possibility of electing their new colleagues by jury (from 1566), and of defining the titles of chairs. This is a fundamental development, because the chairs can be redefined, temporarily frozen or replaced according to needs and new developments. From then on, the Assembly of Professors becomes the real place of management of the institution.

However, the evolution is not linear. At the end of the Ancien Régime, the College was integrated more strongly into the University of Paris. In 1800, the State codified its functioning, without explicitly establishing the role of the assembly in matters of appointment. There is no shortage of statutory modifications: 1829, 1857, 1873, 1911, 1932, 2007, 2014 (p. 38). Likewise, the number of chairs increased: from 6 in the first years, they increased to 20 at the end of the old regime, then to 50 in 1927, and finally to 52 today. However, these regulatory and digital changes should not mask certain continuities. The recruitment procedure has been institutionalized: we no longer imagine family transmissions of chairs, as existed in the XIXe century !

Another important aspect, the College is based on “ knowledge in motion » (pp. 48-54). The disciplinary divisions are not those of the university, which allows the emergence of new disciplines (for example comparativism, clinical psychology, archaeology, linguistics, nuclear physics, etc.). The study of oriental civilizations constitutes one of the original aspects of the establishment, with Jean-François Champollion for Egyptology (1831-1832) or Louis Massignon on the Arab-Muslim world (1926-1954). Likewise, the role of experimentation, both in research and teaching, constitutes an early specificity of the institution. Claude Bernard, who worked under different statuses at the Collège de France from 1841 to 1860, is one of the great theorists of this experimental approach. The couple formed by Irène Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie continued this tradition during the interwar period. The appointment of Michel Foucault (in 1970) and Roland Barthes (in 1976) also shows that the Collège de France opened up very quickly to the new critical theories of the 1960s and 1970s. Educational and scientific freedom, collegiality, the refusal of rigid boundaries between fields of knowledge are the three factors of such a capacity for adaptation.

The College and the City

Excellence, tradition and modernity, the Collège de France cannot be reduced to this academic triptych. Its members also act in the City. The work underlines – and this is one of the often overlooked points – how much the institution has influenced public debate. Édouard de Laboulaye, holder of the chair of comparative legislation (1849-1883), is for example at the origin, with the sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, of the Statue of Liberty project, but also of the importation of the idea of separation of Church and State (p. 81). Several scholars from the college are close to or members of the CVIA (vigilance committee of anti-fascist intellectuals), formed in 1934. At the Liberation, Henri Wallon and Paul Langevin participated in the education reform commission to which they left their name (“ Langevin-Wallon map “).

Conversely, social, political, religious and ideological pressures weighed on the functioning of the institution. Adam Mickiewicz, Edgar Quinet and Jules Michelet were, for example, suspended by the Second Empire, despite the protests of professors (p. 82). Likewise, Ernest Renan, affirming in one of the most famous lessons of the Collège de France, on February 22, 1862, that Jesus was a “ incomparable man », unleashed passions. Losing the right to take his course four days later by an imperial letter, he was stripped of his professorship in 1864, the Republic reinstating it in 1870.

Another dark episode, the Occupation saw the Collège de France, known for its republican orientations, put under the close control of Vichy and the occupier (p. 108-113). Several scientists lost their chairs due to the regime’s racist laws, including Marcel Mauss. Some suffered an even more tragic fate, such as Henri Maspero and Maurice Halbwachs, who died in deportation to Buchenwald in 1945. Some scholars went in the direction of the Vichy regime, such as Bernard Faÿ, holder of the chair of American civilization from 1932 to 1944, who participates in the persecution against Freemasons. He was dismissed at the Liberation, then sentenced to forced labor.

At the end of this fascinating and abundant story, how is this “ old house », to paraphrase a formula from Léon Blum in 1920 ? The Collège de France inspired the creation of prestigious institutions, such as the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1930 or the Collège Belgique in 2007. We could add – even if the work does not explicitly state it – that certain prestigious institutions, such as ENSL’EPHE or theEHESSare sometimes reminiscent of certain distinctive features of the College. Likewise, the Collège de France has proven to be particularly adapted to the digital age: the Internet and MOOCS (online courses) resume its tradition of courses open to all. In 2013-2014, 20 million downloads were made from the establishment’s website. Internationalization was early: from the outset, readers were recruited outside France. Since 1976, Collège de France professors have been able to carry out part of their teaching abroad. By Francis Ier in the global era, the institution has definitely not lost its originality.