author
Émile Agnel
1810–1882
A 19th-century French man of letters, he moved easily between law, language, history, and even music. He is best remembered today for vivid, curious works that brought unusual corners of the past to life.
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About the author
Born in Paris in 1810, Émile Agnel was a French writer and lawyer. Library and authority records identify him as the author of practical legal works, and other sources describe him as a philologist and literary figure as well.
His published work ranged widely. Bibliographic records connect him with legal writing, historical studies, translations from Ovid, and a chamber music composition, suggesting a remarkably broad intellectual life rather than a single narrow specialty.
Agnel is especially associated with Curiosités judiciaires et historiques du Moyen Âge, first published in 1858, a work that helped preserve interest in strange and revealing episodes from medieval justice. He died in 1882.