François-Louis Ganshof

François Louis Ganshof ( born March 14, 1895 in Bruges, † July 26, 1980 in Brussels) was a Belgian historian.

François -Louis Ganshof studied in Ghent and was the successor of Henri Pirenne at Ghent University, where he taught until his retirement in 1961 as a professor.

In his work Ganshof grappled with the history of Flanders and Belgium. His work ranged in time from late antiquity to the early modern period. But Ganshofs special attention were the early Middle Ages, and especially the Carolingian period. In the book La Belgique carolingienne (1953 ), he described the situation of Belgium and its neighboring areas and gave a central position at the same time an overall picture of the Carolingian constitution, administration, economy and society. With the history of Flanders, the works put on the ministry officials in Flanders and Lorraine ( 1926), on the courts of the Kastellaneien in Flanders ( 1932) and Flanders under the first Earl apart ( 1943). His study Wat were de capitularia? (1955 ) dealt with the relationship between royal spell violence and folk law. In many works, he tried to lighten the pious, the older negative picture of Louis. Ganshof summed up his presentation What is feudalism? ( Qu'est- ce que la feodalite? ), Which first appeared in 1944 in the French language, the state of research on the feudal system until the early 1990s together. The representation learned, inter alia, Translations into English, German, Spanish, Portuguese. It was not until by Susan Reynolds in 1994 with a study on fiefs and vassals in Europe a new interpretation of the Manual knowledge of the feudal system.

Ganshof received numerous honors, honorary doctorates and memberships of many learned societies and academies. 1946 Francqui Prize he was awarded. In 1954 he became a corresponding member of the Monumenta Historica Germaniae. In 1959 his admission into the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts.

Among his students Raoul Van Caenegem, Adriaan Verhulst and Jan Dhondt.

Writings

• What is the feudal system? 7, opposite the 6th unchanged German edition, University Press, Darmstadt 1989, ISBN 3-534-00927-4.
• What were the capitularies? University Press, Darmstadt 1961.
• La Belgique carolingienne. La Renaissance du Livre, Brussels 1958.
• Étude sur les ministeriales en Flandre et en Lotharingie. Lambertin, Brussels 1926.