Originally from Matignon (22), Paul Sébillot (1843-1918) abandoned the prospect of a career in law to immerse himself in painting. An art critic and landscape painter, he exhibited in various salons, but around 1880 he decided to devote himself to collecting the oral literature of Upper Brittany; author of a harvest of rare abundance and quality, he not only became one of the most prominent French folklorists, but also played a leading role at the national and international levels in the study and promotion of folk traditions: he developed tools (bibliographies, questionnaires, survey guides, etc.), published summaries, launched “Les littératures populaires de toutes les nations” (folk literatures of all nations) in 1881, one of the major collections of oral literature, and organized the first international folklore conferences. In 1886, he also created the Société des Traditions populaires and the homonymous Revue (journal), that he directed for more than thirty years.
This book, published by the Centre de Recherche Bretonne et Celtique (UBO – Brest) in collaboration with LAHIC (Paris) and the association La Granjagoul – Maison du Patrimoine Oral en Haute-Bretagne, is an opportunity to evoke the many facets of this committed republican, and to address the intellectual and political context in which his work is situated as well as the many regional, national and even international networks which it is part of. This publication fills a gap and corrects an injustice, because, curiously, little work has been done on the tireless worker Paul Sébillot.
This volume, published by the CRBC, brings together the proceedings of the conference “Paul Sébillot (1843-1918) Un républicain promoteur des traditions populaires”, as part of the BEROSE project.