François Avril

François Avril is a French art historian and librarian, specialising in medieval manuscripts and their illuminations.

Early life and education

Avril graduated from the École Nationale des Chartes in 1963 in the same class as Bruno Neveu with a thesis entitled La décoration des manuscrits dans les abbayes bénédictines de Normandie aux XI-XII siecles The same year, he was made palaeographic-archivist and a member of the French Academy in Rome.

He joined the manuscripts department at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 1967 and remained there until retirement in 2003 as general curator.

In 1989, the French National Centre for Scientific Research awarded Avril a silver medal. In 2004, he was granted an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Berlin, an event marked by a day of lectures published in a volume of Mélanges.

Avril has published several books and articles and taken part in many exhibitions. His most notable works are:

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.Le Livre des Tournois du Roi René de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Herscher, 1986, 85 p.Quand la peinture était dans les livres : les manuscrits enluminés en France : 1440–1520, Flammarion, 1993 - whose catalogue won the prix Minda de Gunzburg
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