Michel Zink

Michel Zink, born in 1945, is a professor of French and Occitan medieval literature at the Collège de France since 1994. Since 2000, he is a member of and, since 2011, also the eternal secretary of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (Institut de France). After his studies at the Ecole normale supérieure (Paris) and at the Sorbonne (1964-1968), he graduated in classics in 1967. He then became assistant professor at the Sorbonne-Paris 4 (1968-1976), professor at the University of Toulouse-Le Mirail (1976-1987) and at the Sorbonne-Paris 4 (1987-1994). He has been a visiting professor or guest lecturer at many American, European and Japanese universities. In 2007, he won the Balzan prize. He is also an Officer of the Légion d’honneur and Commander of the Palmes académiques, two distinguished French orders. As author of about twenty-five books and editor of about twenty books on medieval literature, principally religious literature, troubadour’s poetry and literary theory, he has also founded the series of pocket books “Lettres gothiques “ (Livre de Poche, Hachette). He is now a director of this collection, which publishes medieval literary texts in Ancient and Middle French with a translation in modern French. He has also written some novels and tales.