Pierre Girault de Nolhac (15 December 1859, Ambert – 31 January 1936, Paris), known as Pierre de Nolhac, was a French historian, art historian and poet.
After studying at Le Puy-en-Velay, in Rodez and Clermont-Ferrand, Pierre de Nolhac went to Paris in 1880 to undertake a literature degree at the Sorbonne and the École pratique des hautes études, where he later became director of studies. A Member of the French School of Rome in 1882, he worked there on Italian humanism of the sixteenth century. In 1886, he was attached to the Museum in the Palace of Versailles and became curator in 1892, founding a chair of art history within the École du Louvre in 1910, then retiring to the Musée Jacquemart-André in 1920. He was elected a member of the Académie française in 1922.
His activities in the museum of Versailles were crucial, since they contributed greatly to modernisation and to restoring the collections, including the furniture, which had been dispersed during the French Revolution. He played a role in the preparations for the Treaty of Versailles, which took place in the Palace in June 1919.
Pierre de Nolhac left a substantial body of work largely devoted to history, especially to Renaissance humanism. During his stay at the French School of Rome (1882-1885), he discovered unpublished manuscripts of Petrarch in the Vatican library, and the discovery helped advance knowledge about his subject. His monograph on Fulvio Orsini is still authoritative. He also devoted several books to Queen Marie-Antoinette at Versailles. His work as a poet was recognised in his own time, notably by his friend, the Italian poet Gabriele d'Annunzio.
Pierre de Nolhac street sign in Versailles
The central library of Versailles has many manuscripts of major works by Pierre de Nolhac, including Erasmus and Italy, Queen Marie Antoinette, Nattier, Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska. Also available are the original of his 1924 acceptance speech to the Académie française and his very extensive correspondence with figures as diverse as Marcel Proust, Henri Bergson, Leconte de Lisle, Ernest Renan, Mussolini or Lyautey.
Apostage stamp was issued bearing his image February 13, 1960.
A street in Versailles, near the castle between the Dufour Pavilion and the Grand Commun, bears his name.
Versailles Triomphant
La France d'autrefois a laissé son image
Faite de pierre et d'eau, de marbres et de fleurs ;
Versailles lui compose un livre de grandeurs
Où l'art de ses enfants l'exalte à chaque page.
Par lui sous notre ciel s’attestent d’âge en âge
Les grâces d’un génie où se prennent les cœurs ;
La volonté d’un seul ordonna ces splendeurs
Et le pays entier se mire en son ouvrage.
Mais ces Français vaillants dont nous sommes les fils
Savaient entremêler les lauriers et les lis ;
À cueillir la victoire ils excellaient naguère ;
Et l’on voit, aux plafonds que Le Brun déroula
Du Salon de la Paix au Salon de la Guerre,
L’Allemagne trembler lorsque Turenne est là.[1]
Le Dernier Amour de Ronsard (1882)
Lettres de Joachim Du Bellay publiées pour la première fois d'après les originaux (1883)
Saint-André, Claude, A king's favourite: Madame du Barry and her times from hitherto unpublished documents London, Herbert Jenkins, 1915. Introduction by Pierre de Nolhac.
^cited in Salvy, Claire (2009). Pierre de Nolhac 1859-1936. Les Editions du Roure. p. 71. ISBN2-906278-85-8. English translation: Versailles Triumphant
The France of the past has left its image
In stone and water, in marble and flowers;
Of these Versailles has composed a book of grandeurs
Where the art of its children exalts each page.
By which under our sky shows from age to age
The graces of a genius that touches our hearts;
A single will commanded these splendours
And the whole country is reflected in his work.
But these brave French of whom we are the sons
Knew how to intersperse the laurels and lilies;
To gather the victory at which they once excelled;
And we see in the ceilings that that Le Brun unveiled,
From the Salon of Peace to the Salon of War,
How Germany trembled when Turenne was there.
Pierre de Nolhac, La Résurrection de Versailles, Souvenirs d'un conservateur, 1887-1920 (Plon, 1937); reissue presented and annotated by Christophe Pincemaille, coll. La Société des Amis de Versailles (Paris, Perrin, 2002, p. 251)
Franck Ferrand, Ils ont sauvé Versailles (Perrin, 2004)
Claire Salvy, Pierre de Nolhac 1859-1936 (Les Editions du Roure, 2009) ISBN2-906278-85-8
