Professor

Émile RIPERT 1882-1948

In 1907 Emile RIPERT began his career as a teacher at the Lycée de Toulon and then at the Lycée d’Albi, where he only stayed for 2 months because he obtained a travel grant for Italy. He visited Rome, Assisi, Florence, Naples, Genoa, Bologna, Venice and he thus spent 5 months in Italy in a lyrical enchantment and enthusiasm. It was in Florence that he reread the Divine Comedy in the text and it was there on the banks of the Arno that he discovered the mold in which most of his poetic work was to flow, the “terra- rima ”by Dante.

In 1909 he was appointed to the Lycée Thiers in Marseille. He remained there until 1914 when he was affected by the decree of mobilization as a colonial infantry sergeant. Released, he returned to the Lycée de Marseille in rhetoric class

Emile RIPERT teacher at Lycée Thiers in Marseille surrounded by his students

In 1910 he was at the origin of the creation of a magazine “Notre Revue” intended to create a direct link with the pupils of all the schools where French was taught (Belgium, France and Switzerland)

The vocation of this magazine was to publish the poems and prose of students who wanted to manifest themselves well. There are very nice texts there. Excerpts

He was much loved by his students as evidenced by the thank you card of his students in the 3rd year of the Thiers lycée on the occasion of Saint-Emile.

Saint-Emile 1912

Emile RIPERT became a Doctor of Letters at the Sorbonne in 1918, by defending his thesis entitled “La Renaissance Provençale” accompanied by the additional thesis “la versification de Mistral”. This book is the most comprehensive study that has been done on the literary movements of the South of France from the Troubadours to the Felibré movement.

This thesis was crowned by the Académie Française. Excerpts

The publication of his thesis on the Provençal Renaissance, his lectures and his numerous publications of works on Provence studied and sung in verse in all its aspects gave him a fame that went beyond his region and which led him to be chosen to occupy the chair of literature and Provençal language which was created in 1920 at the University of Aix en Provence.

He also went to Corsica every year where he chaired the jury for the baccalaureate exams. He was appreciated by his students because they said:

 “Emile RIPERT is spontaneous, not at all proud and of infinite kindness” ”
… Mr. RIPERT serves us the marrow and does not impose on us the dry, the arid, the indigestible of the documents … “

He is at the heart of debates when it comes to regionalism and he will steadfastly defend the idea of admitting the Provençal to the baccalaureate. In 1925 he published a brochure “Should we admit the Mistral Language to the Baccalaureate? “. His action for the admission of Provençal to the baccalaureate was ardent. He ended up getting what he had long been asking for. His whole life has been devoted to studying and disseminating the wealth of events, men and literature from the south of France which has always been in his eyes a gold mine that can be the source of a teaching of high spiritual value. .

In 1933, a fervent supporter of a great Union between all the countries of Latin origin, he actively participated in the creation of the Mediterranean University Center of Nice, which his great friend Maurice Mignon was to take over.

“Provençals of the Provençal language or of the French language, by parallel paths let’s go towards the same goal. Isn’t this goal to develop, in this admirable garden organized by nature for the most beautiful development of all human possibilities, on the land marked forever by the Latin “oc”, an original civilization where the Would Spain and Africa come to temper their ardor with the wet gentleness of the Gauls, where France mixes her strength with the caress of Italy? “Emile Ripert

In 1938 he went to England in order to see the creation of an English chair at the Center Universitaire Méditerranéen de Nice.

He retired from teaching in 1945 and retired to his country house of Sécadou in La Ciotat, where he will continue to write.

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