This is a non-exhaustive list of people who were born in the
Occitania historical territory, or notable people from other regions of France or Europe with Occitan roots, or notable people from other regions of France or Europe who have other significant links with the historical region. One may note that this article, 'Notable people from Occitania', is compound for a large part of personalities from the historical region of Occitania and/or who own an Occitan patronym and/or who lived for the major part of their lives in the Occitania historical territory, yet an important part of the list members still can't be considered as belonging to the Occitan historical heritage, mainly due to their mother-tongue, French.
La Rochefoucauld, 17th century moralist born in Paris to the famous noble
Rochefoucauld family whose origins go back to
Charente, where he had his residence.
Cyrano de Bergerac, 17th century novelist and playwright. He was from a Dordognaise aristocratic family from
Bergerac, although he never lived there in his entire life.
Marquis de Sade, 18th century aristocrat,
revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer. Born in Paris, he was the heir of the
Provençal Sade house, one of the oldest family of the region. He was thus Lord of
Saumane,
Lacoste and Co-Lord of
Mazan where he had several residences, including the famous
Château de Lacoste.
Comte de Lautréamont, 19th century poet born in
Uruguay to François Ducasse (consular officer) and his wife Jacquette-Célestine Davezac, both from Southwestern France from which they returned when Ducasse was thirteen, in
Tarbes and later in
Pau where the poet begun to write his first works.
Honoré de Balzac, 19th century
realist writer. Born in
Tours, he was the son of Bernard François Balssa, an administrator from the
Tarn department in South West France, who was despatched to Tours to coordinate supplies for the
Army during the
Directory. François changed his name to the more noble sounding Balzac, and his son Honoré later added — without official recognition — the
nobiliary particle: "de".[1] According to
André Maurois and Philibert Auberrand, the original family name Balssa came from the radical bals which in Occitan means "steep rock".[2][3] Another commonly admitted theory is that Balssa came from the Occitan balsan, derived from
Late Latinbalteanus, describing a horse with white patches on its paws.
André Antoine, actor, theatre manager, film director, author, and critic as well as one of the leading member of the
Naturalist movement.
André Gide, 20th century writer and 1947
Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Paris, his family was from
Uzès, in the
Gard department. He was from an old Protestant family from Southern France. His father Paul Gide and his uncle
Charles Gide, were both born in Uzès. Gide is a popular last name in the Gard and
Bouches du Rhône departments.[4]
Anne Desclos, 20th century journalist and novelist.
Joan Bodon, 20th century Occitan-language writer. His mother, Albanie Boudou (née Balssa), was said to be connected by blood with 19th century novelist Honoré de Balzac.[5]
Jean Lacouture, 20th century journalist, historian and author, known for his biographies of famous statesmen (including the likes of
Charles de Gaulle and of
Hô Chi Minh).
Pierre Bayle, philosopher and writer, forerunner of the
Encyclopedists and an advocate of the principle of the toleration of divergent beliefs, his works subsequently influenced the development of the
Enlightenment.
Pierre Gassendi, philosopher and mathematician. His best known intellectual project attempted to reconcile
Epicureanismatomism with Christianity.
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, essayist and political theorist of the French Revolution. He also made significant theoretical contributions to the nascent
social sciences.
Jean Cavaillès, 20th-century philosopher and mathematician who took part in the
French Resistance within the
Libération movement. He came from a long line of
Huguenotofficers from the South West of France. His last name, Cavaillès, derivates from cavalh, the Occitan word for horse.
Jean-Paul Sartre, 20th-century philosopher, playwright, novelist and political activist. Born in Paris, his father originated from
Thiviers, in
Dordogne where young Sartre spent his holidays.[6] His last name Sartre, came from "satre", the occitan word for "tailor".
Georges Bataille, 20th-century influential intellectual and literary figure.
Pierre Bourdieu, sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher, his sociological work is dominated by the analysis of the reproduction mechanisms of the social
hierarchies.
Alain Badiou, 20th-century
marxist philosopher. Born in
French Morocco, his father Raymond Badiou was mayor of
Toulouse from 1944 to 1958. His last name, Badiou, comes from the Occitan badiu for simpleton.[7]
Gennadius of Massilia, 5th century Christian priest, polemist, theologian and historian.
Pope Sylvester II, prolific scholar and teacher who endorsed and promoted study of Arab and
Greco-Roman arithmetic, mathematics, and astronomy, reintroducing to Europe the
abacus and
armillary sphere, which had been lost to Europe.
Gregory of Tours, historian and
Bishop of Tours. He is the main contemporary source for
Merovingian history. His most notable work was his Decem Libri Historiarum or Ten Books of Histories, better known as the Historia Francorum ("History of the
Franks").
Jean-Antoine Chaptal, chemist, physician, agronomist, industrialist, statesman, educator and philanthropist, discoverer of the chaptalizatio procedure.
Jean-Charles de Borda, mathematician and physicist, he developed the
Borda count voting system and contributed to the construction of the standard metre, basis of the
metric system.
Philippe Pinel, physician who was instrumental in the development of a more humane psychological approach to the custody and care of psychiatric patients and pioneer of the
moral therapy.
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, Swiss botanist, he came from one of the oldest noble families of
Provence that moved to Switzerland at the end of the 16th century to escape religious persecution.
Charles Cros, poet and inventor, best known for being the first person to conceive a method for reproducing recorded sound, an invention he named the Paleophone.
Gabriel Tarde, sociologist, criminologist and social psychologist who conceived sociology as based on small psychological interactions among individuals.
Alexander Grothendieck German-born French mathematician who grew up in Montpellier where he attended the municipal
University and lived for the rest of his live in
Ariège as a hermit, until his death in 2014.
Alfred Sauvy, demographer, anthropologist and historian who first coined the term
Third World.
Alain Connes, mathematician, who revolutionized the
Von Neumann algebra, resolving major problems on this field, notably the classification of the Type III factors. He was awarded of the 1982
Fields Medal.
Honoré Daumier, printmaker,
caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century.
Paul Cézanne, 19th-century post-impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century.
Statesmen, entrepreneurs, religious figures and activists
Lucius Caesar, grandson and successor of
Augustus who unexpectedly died at the age of 18, compelling Augustus to redraw the line of succession by adopting
Tiberius.
Richard I, 12th-century
King of
England, spent most of his life in
Aquitaine and spoke Occitan language. He was an important
patron of the troubadours.
Marguerite de Navarre, 16th-century princess of France and patron of
Humanists and reformers. She is sometimes regarded as the "First Modern Woman" due to her independence and important role in the spreading of the
Renaissance in the French Kingdom.
Henry IV of France, 16th-century
King of
France, known as Le Bon Roi Henri (Good King Henry), he remains one of the most emblematic King of France, notably for having been raised in the
Protestant faith.
Jean Nicot, diplomat and scholar who introduced
snuff tobacco to the French royal court. The tobacco plant, Nicotiana, a flowering garden plant, was named after him by
Carl Linnaeus, as was
nicotine.
Adolphe Thiers, statesman, who came to epitomize by his life-long political career — during which he served under the
monarchy, the
republic and the
Empire — the tumultuous dynamics of the 19th century politics in France.
Jean Monnet, 20th-century political economist and diplomat. He is regarded by many as the chief architect of
European unity and the founding father of the European Union.
François Mitterrand, President of France from 1981 to 1995. He was, therefore, the longest-serving President of France and the first one from the Left under the Fifth Republic.
Michel Camdessus, applied economist and managing director of the
IMF from 1987 to 2000, which makes him the longest serving managing director of this international institution.
Jean-Pierre Rives, former rugby union footballer. "A cult figure in France," according to the BBC, he came to epitomise the team's spirit and "ultra-committed, guts-and-glory style of play. He was awarded the
Order of the Legion of Honor and was inducted into the
International Rugby Hall of Fame. He is one of the most emblematic rugby union footballers of all time and described by Australian actor
Hugh Jackman as "A small guy on the field, he finished every game with blood on face".
Philippe Sella, former rugby league and rugby union footballer. An important figure of the French rugby union team as well as the
London Saracens. He later became a member of the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 1999 and the
IRB Hall of Fame in 2008.
Odo de St Amand, eighth Grand Master of the Knights Templar, remembered for his numerous victories, the most famous one being the victory of the
Battle of Montgisard against
Saladin.
Samuel de Champlain, navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler, considered as the "Father of
New France".
Louis de Buade de Frontenac, soldier and Governor general of New France from an old noble family from
Béarn, who successfully defended
Quebec from the British invasions of the King William's War.
Abel Douay, general, killed in combat during the
Battle of Wissembourg where the French defenders, although greatly outnumbered, fought heroically.
Joseph Gallieni, highly decorated soldier, commander and administrator. He took back
Madagascar from the rebels in 1896 and played an important role on the French side during the First World War.
Joseph Joffre,
general who served as
Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front from the start of World War I until the end of 1916, best known for regrouping the retreating allied armies to defeat the Germans at the strategically decisive
First Battle of the Marne in September 1914.
Adolf Galland, successful German flying ace credited with 104 aerial victories during World War II, from Occitan Huguenot ancestry originating from
Veynes.
This is a non-exhaustive list of people who were born in the
Occitania historical territory, or notable people from other regions of France or Europe with Occitan roots, or notable people from other regions of France or Europe who have other significant links with the historical region. One may note that this article, 'Notable people from Occitania', is compound for a large part of personalities from the historical region of Occitania and/or who own an Occitan patronym and/or who lived for the major part of their lives in the Occitania historical territory, yet an important part of the list members still can't be considered as belonging to the Occitan historical heritage, mainly due to their mother-tongue, French.
La Rochefoucauld, 17th century moralist born in Paris to the famous noble
Rochefoucauld family whose origins go back to
Charente, where he had his residence.
Cyrano de Bergerac, 17th century novelist and playwright. He was from a Dordognaise aristocratic family from
Bergerac, although he never lived there in his entire life.
Marquis de Sade, 18th century aristocrat,
revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer. Born in Paris, he was the heir of the
Provençal Sade house, one of the oldest family of the region. He was thus Lord of
Saumane,
Lacoste and Co-Lord of
Mazan where he had several residences, including the famous
Château de Lacoste.
Comte de Lautréamont, 19th century poet born in
Uruguay to François Ducasse (consular officer) and his wife Jacquette-Célestine Davezac, both from Southwestern France from which they returned when Ducasse was thirteen, in
Tarbes and later in
Pau where the poet begun to write his first works.
Honoré de Balzac, 19th century
realist writer. Born in
Tours, he was the son of Bernard François Balssa, an administrator from the
Tarn department in South West France, who was despatched to Tours to coordinate supplies for the
Army during the
Directory. François changed his name to the more noble sounding Balzac, and his son Honoré later added — without official recognition — the
nobiliary particle: "de".[1] According to
André Maurois and Philibert Auberrand, the original family name Balssa came from the radical bals which in Occitan means "steep rock".[2][3] Another commonly admitted theory is that Balssa came from the Occitan balsan, derived from
Late Latinbalteanus, describing a horse with white patches on its paws.
André Antoine, actor, theatre manager, film director, author, and critic as well as one of the leading member of the
Naturalist movement.
André Gide, 20th century writer and 1947
Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Paris, his family was from
Uzès, in the
Gard department. He was from an old Protestant family from Southern France. His father Paul Gide and his uncle
Charles Gide, were both born in Uzès. Gide is a popular last name in the Gard and
Bouches du Rhône departments.[4]
Anne Desclos, 20th century journalist and novelist.
Joan Bodon, 20th century Occitan-language writer. His mother, Albanie Boudou (née Balssa), was said to be connected by blood with 19th century novelist Honoré de Balzac.[5]
Jean Lacouture, 20th century journalist, historian and author, known for his biographies of famous statesmen (including the likes of
Charles de Gaulle and of
Hô Chi Minh).
Pierre Bayle, philosopher and writer, forerunner of the
Encyclopedists and an advocate of the principle of the toleration of divergent beliefs, his works subsequently influenced the development of the
Enlightenment.
Pierre Gassendi, philosopher and mathematician. His best known intellectual project attempted to reconcile
Epicureanismatomism with Christianity.
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, essayist and political theorist of the French Revolution. He also made significant theoretical contributions to the nascent
social sciences.
Jean Cavaillès, 20th-century philosopher and mathematician who took part in the
French Resistance within the
Libération movement. He came from a long line of
Huguenotofficers from the South West of France. His last name, Cavaillès, derivates from cavalh, the Occitan word for horse.
Jean-Paul Sartre, 20th-century philosopher, playwright, novelist and political activist. Born in Paris, his father originated from
Thiviers, in
Dordogne where young Sartre spent his holidays.[6] His last name Sartre, came from "satre", the occitan word for "tailor".
Georges Bataille, 20th-century influential intellectual and literary figure.
Pierre Bourdieu, sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher, his sociological work is dominated by the analysis of the reproduction mechanisms of the social
hierarchies.
Alain Badiou, 20th-century
marxist philosopher. Born in
French Morocco, his father Raymond Badiou was mayor of
Toulouse from 1944 to 1958. His last name, Badiou, comes from the Occitan badiu for simpleton.[7]
Gennadius of Massilia, 5th century Christian priest, polemist, theologian and historian.
Pope Sylvester II, prolific scholar and teacher who endorsed and promoted study of Arab and
Greco-Roman arithmetic, mathematics, and astronomy, reintroducing to Europe the
abacus and
armillary sphere, which had been lost to Europe.
Gregory of Tours, historian and
Bishop of Tours. He is the main contemporary source for
Merovingian history. His most notable work was his Decem Libri Historiarum or Ten Books of Histories, better known as the Historia Francorum ("History of the
Franks").
Jean-Antoine Chaptal, chemist, physician, agronomist, industrialist, statesman, educator and philanthropist, discoverer of the chaptalizatio procedure.
Jean-Charles de Borda, mathematician and physicist, he developed the
Borda count voting system and contributed to the construction of the standard metre, basis of the
metric system.
Philippe Pinel, physician who was instrumental in the development of a more humane psychological approach to the custody and care of psychiatric patients and pioneer of the
moral therapy.
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, Swiss botanist, he came from one of the oldest noble families of
Provence that moved to Switzerland at the end of the 16th century to escape religious persecution.
Charles Cros, poet and inventor, best known for being the first person to conceive a method for reproducing recorded sound, an invention he named the Paleophone.
Gabriel Tarde, sociologist, criminologist and social psychologist who conceived sociology as based on small psychological interactions among individuals.
Alexander Grothendieck German-born French mathematician who grew up in Montpellier where he attended the municipal
University and lived for the rest of his live in
Ariège as a hermit, until his death in 2014.
Alfred Sauvy, demographer, anthropologist and historian who first coined the term
Third World.
Alain Connes, mathematician, who revolutionized the
Von Neumann algebra, resolving major problems on this field, notably the classification of the Type III factors. He was awarded of the 1982
Fields Medal.
Honoré Daumier, printmaker,
caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century.
Paul Cézanne, 19th-century post-impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century.
Statesmen, entrepreneurs, religious figures and activists
Lucius Caesar, grandson and successor of
Augustus who unexpectedly died at the age of 18, compelling Augustus to redraw the line of succession by adopting
Tiberius.
Richard I, 12th-century
King of
England, spent most of his life in
Aquitaine and spoke Occitan language. He was an important
patron of the troubadours.
Marguerite de Navarre, 16th-century princess of France and patron of
Humanists and reformers. She is sometimes regarded as the "First Modern Woman" due to her independence and important role in the spreading of the
Renaissance in the French Kingdom.
Henry IV of France, 16th-century
King of
France, known as Le Bon Roi Henri (Good King Henry), he remains one of the most emblematic King of France, notably for having been raised in the
Protestant faith.
Jean Nicot, diplomat and scholar who introduced
snuff tobacco to the French royal court. The tobacco plant, Nicotiana, a flowering garden plant, was named after him by
Carl Linnaeus, as was
nicotine.
Adolphe Thiers, statesman, who came to epitomize by his life-long political career — during which he served under the
monarchy, the
republic and the
Empire — the tumultuous dynamics of the 19th century politics in France.
Jean Monnet, 20th-century political economist and diplomat. He is regarded by many as the chief architect of
European unity and the founding father of the European Union.
François Mitterrand, President of France from 1981 to 1995. He was, therefore, the longest-serving President of France and the first one from the Left under the Fifth Republic.
Michel Camdessus, applied economist and managing director of the
IMF from 1987 to 2000, which makes him the longest serving managing director of this international institution.
Jean-Pierre Rives, former rugby union footballer. "A cult figure in France," according to the BBC, he came to epitomise the team's spirit and "ultra-committed, guts-and-glory style of play. He was awarded the
Order of the Legion of Honor and was inducted into the
International Rugby Hall of Fame. He is one of the most emblematic rugby union footballers of all time and described by Australian actor
Hugh Jackman as "A small guy on the field, he finished every game with blood on face".
Philippe Sella, former rugby league and rugby union footballer. An important figure of the French rugby union team as well as the
London Saracens. He later became a member of the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 1999 and the
IRB Hall of Fame in 2008.
Odo de St Amand, eighth Grand Master of the Knights Templar, remembered for his numerous victories, the most famous one being the victory of the
Battle of Montgisard against
Saladin.
Samuel de Champlain, navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler, considered as the "Father of
New France".
Louis de Buade de Frontenac, soldier and Governor general of New France from an old noble family from
Béarn, who successfully defended
Quebec from the British invasions of the King William's War.
Abel Douay, general, killed in combat during the
Battle of Wissembourg where the French defenders, although greatly outnumbered, fought heroically.
Joseph Gallieni, highly decorated soldier, commander and administrator. He took back
Madagascar from the rebels in 1896 and played an important role on the French side during the First World War.
Joseph Joffre,
general who served as
Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front from the start of World War I until the end of 1916, best known for regrouping the retreating allied armies to defeat the Germans at the strategically decisive
First Battle of the Marne in September 1914.
Adolf Galland, successful German flying ace credited with 104 aerial victories during World War II, from Occitan Huguenot ancestry originating from
Veynes.