Armenian Studies flourished in the West long before they did among Armenians. France was one of the main hubs, with the Armenian chair of the École des Langues Orientales (School of Oriental Languages) as the main center of activities. Fréderic Macler was one of the prolific names of French Armenology during the first third of the past century.
Macler was born on May 16, 1869, at Montdoré, in the department of Haut-Saône. He studied with Auguste Carriere, the holder of the chair at the École from 1881-1902, and learned Armenian, Syriac, and Hebrew with him. In 1895 he published his first article of Armenological interest, “Apocryphal Armenian Apocalypses of Daniel.”
This indefatigable scholar would go to write almost a hundred articles in French about issues of Armenian history, geography, folklore, music, architecture, and painting, and a string of books (Armenian Miniatures, 1913; The Music in Armenia, 1917; Oriental Mosaic, 1917; Armenian Secular Decorative Art, 1924; Armenia and Crimea, 1930, among many others). His interest in Armenian issues was not simply attached to the past. He wrote works like Around Cilicia (1916) and The Armenian Nation: Its Past, Its Disgraces (1924), among others, where he expressed his deep sympathy to the Armenian plight and did not hesitate to express his solidarity in many opportunities, condemning the criminal actions of the Ottoman government.
Macler succeeded the great linguist Antoine Meillet at the chair of Armenian in 1911. He was one of the co-founders of the Société des études arméniennes in 1919, together with a group of scholars (Victor Berard, Charles Diehl, André-Ferdinand Herold, H. Lacroix, Meillet, Gabriel Millet, and Gustave Schlumberger). The following year he created one of the most important journals in the Armenian Studies field, the Revue des études arméniennes, which he co-directed with Meillet until its demise in 1933. Three decades later, in 1964, the journal was revived and continues its publication to this day.
As an avid scholar of things Armenian, Macler made many research trips throughout Europe (Holland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Poland, Denmark, Romania, Bulgaria) and the Middle East (Constantinople, Syria), and frequently published the results in books and articles. For instance, he visited Armenia during four months in 1909 and published his findings in the book Report on a Scientific Mission in Russian Armenia and Turkish Armenia (1911). He also compiled catalogs of Armenian manuscripts found in the libraries he had visited, including a catalog of Armenian manuscripts preserved at the National Library of France (1908). He translated the first part—whose author is actually unknown—of the History of Heraclius by Sebeos, an author of the seventh century (1905), and the Universal History of Stepanos Taronatsi (Asoghik), a historian of the tenth century (1917). He translated and compiled collections of Armenian modern literature (1905), popular tales (1915 and 1928), mythological accounts (1929), and a chrestomathy of modern language.
Macler retired from his chair in 1937 and was succeeded by Georges Dumezil, the famous Indo-Europeanist. Macler passed away on July 12, 1938, in Montbeliard (Doubs).
