In 1873, 27 years after its creation, the French School at Athens created an Institut de Correspondance hellénique "to bring together facts relating to the history, language and antiquities of the Greek people". Such an Institute required a Bulletin and at the end of January 1877, the first issue of the Bulletin de correspondance hellénique was published.
The editorial activity of the French School at Athens was born.
145 years later, FSA publications remain the go-to point for anyone interested in Greece and the Greek world from Antiquity to the present day. They offer more than 600 titles in history, archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, geography, sociology and more broadly in all the learned disciplines of the ancient sciences as well as in several disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. True to their original vocation of ensuring the dissemination of research by the institution, but also by its scientific partners, the French School at Athens publish between twenty and twenty-five new titles per year. Enjoying a wide French and international circulation, these publications are also intended for a non-university audience.
They are distributed by Peeters Publishers in association with Ian Steven Distribution for the North American market.
The French School at Athens publishes 5 journals and 18 collections.
Bulletin de correspondance hellénique (BCH)
In 1873, 27 years after its creation, the French School at Athens created an Institut de Correspondance hellénique "to bring together facts relating to the history, language and antiquities of the Greek people". Such an Institute required a Bulletin and at the end of January 1877, the first issue of the Bulletin de correspondance hellénique was published.
Its founder, Albert Dumont, set himself some ambitious objectives: "It seemed to me that it would be practical to centralize all the work, all the discoveries that are made in the Hellenic East, to take stock of them and to make them know. The character of this journal will be to accept only articles which make known new facts or monuments. Articles, each of their kind, must be beyond reproach. It’s a big step to get used to publishing only accurate works.”
The journal has never departed from its main founding principles. For almost one hundred and fifty years, the Bulletin de Correspondance hellénique has become indispensable to anyone who deals with ancient Greece, by publishing articles concerning the Neolithic, the Minoan and Mycenaean worlds as well as archaeology and history, from the ancient and Byzantine worlds. Every six months (winter/summer).
There is free access to the Cefael portal, volumes no. 1 to 124 (from 1877 to 2000); on the Persée portal, volumes 1 to 138 (from 1877 to 2014); on the Gallica portal, volumes 1 to 59 (from 1877 to 1935) and since 2015 on the OpenEdition site.
Bulletin de correspondance hellénique moderne et contemporain (BCHmc)
Created in 2019, the Bulletin de correspondance hellénique moderne et contemporain is an extension, for modern and contemporary eras, of the Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. Exclusively electronic, transdisciplinary and international, the bi-annual journal is devoted to the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans, a cultural crossroads marked by the influence of the Byzantine, Ottoman, Venetian and also colonial empires.
On the eve of his departure for Greece, Fustel de Coulanges had written to a friend: "I am not running in search of a forgotten step from the Acropolis, I will observe men, and those of yesteryear and those of today". It is the world of these "men of today" that the BCH moderne et contemporain intends to explore.
It is accessible on the OpenEdition website.
Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l’étranger (BAEFE)
The Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l’étranger presents in a single journal the latest archaeological research carried out around the Mediterranean, in the Balkans, in India and in Asia and published so far separately and in various media.
With their multiple locations in the field, these five prestigious research institutions (the École française d’Athènes, École française de Rome, Institut français d’archéologie orientale, the Casa de Velázquez and the École française d’Extrême-Orient) conduct numerous excavation campaigns on renowned sites such as Pompeii or Delphi, Karnak or Baelo Claudia in the heart of the Strait of Gibraltar, Angkor, Delos or Deir al-Medina for example, and rely on a community of experienced researchers, French or foreign. Present in more than twenty countries, they are developing networks of collaboration and cooperation that make them irreplaceable players in French research abroad. Through the creation of this exclusively digital journal, the French Schools wish to make the results of their archaeological research available to the scientific community.
It is accessible on the OpenEdition website.
Cahiers du Centre d’Études Chypriotes (CCEC)
The Centre for Cypriot Studies, an association created in 1983 to promote the study of the history and civilisation of Cyprus, without chronological or disciplinary limitations, founded the journal Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes (CCEC) the following year, thanks to the support of the A. G. Leventis Foundation. Published annually, it focuses on the history and culture of Cyprus, from its origins to the present day. It covers the entire scientific field of the humanities, with a special emphasis on history, archaeology and historiography.
Because of their commitment and competence, the Centre for Cypriot Studies and the École française d'Athènes wished to establish an editorial partnership in the field of studies on Cyprus, its history and civilisation. The École française d'Athènes will become, from issue 50 (2021), co-publisher of the journal, thus guaranteeing the continuity of its publication.
The Cahiers are available on the OpenEdition website.
Topoi
Topoi Orient-Occident is a journal of ancient history and archaeology whose first issue was published in 1991 on the initiative of the Société des Amis de la Bibliothèque Salomon Reinach. It is published annually in two issues and includes critical reviews, news columns, summaries and debates. The Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East in Antiquity, from Archaism to the Late Roman period, form the general framework of the journal's interests, with a number of special themes: the Hellenised Orient, economy, temples and sanctuaries, animals and botany, administrative practices, etc. One of its original features is that it gives a great deal of space to often very detailed reviews; they sometimes take the form of bibliographical chronicles on a special theme of current research.
The École française d'Athènes has taken the gamble of ensuring complementarity between two institutions, both of which are renowned for their expertise in the field of Eastern Mediterranean and Near Eastern studies. From issue 23 (2020) onwards, the École française d'Athènes will become co-publisher of the journal, thus guaranteeing the continuity of its publication.
Épitomé
Épitomé [epitɔm(e)], [epito:m] : Abstract of a book, a story; more specifically history.
Inaugurated in 2019, the Épitomé collection was born out of a challenge: ask the best specialists to explain the essentials of a question concerning Greece from its origins to the present day. It allows the French School at Athens to use the original research data in the most synthetic way possible and to promote knowledge gains to the widest possible audience.
In a short format, published simultaneously in English, French and Greek, and offered at a price of 9 euros, this new collection aims to put everyone within reach of all the keys to understanding the current challenges of Hellenism. And take its place with other encyclopedic pocket collections!
Patrimoine photographique
Initiated and developed for anniversaries and accompanying exhibitions, this collection continues today with an editorial aim that independent of such commemorations, but with the same ambition: to exploit the rich collection of manuscript, graphic and photographic archives which bear witness to the School's scientific activity and, in particular, its role on the sites which the Greek State has generously allowed it to investigate. This is an opportunity to return to important moments in the life of the institution and its members, who devoted years of their lives to field work and the study of the material uncovered. The Patrimoine photographique collection is a new way of making rare and rarely seen documents accessible to the curious public, in a pleasant form and in a quality edition.
Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome (BEFAR)
In 1876, Albert Dumont, then director of the French School at Athens, founded the Library of the French School at Athens et de Rome (BEFAR) to allow the publication of the theses of the members (doctorates and ‘habilitation’ theses to supervise research) of two Athenian and Roman institutions.
Bulletin de correspondance hellénique, supplément
The French School at Athens created, in 1973 the Suppléments au Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. This collection brings together collective works from research programmes, thematic publications from archaeological research, and monographs. It covers a vast chronology from prehistory to present times.
Topoi, supplément
This collection follows the editorial line of Topoi journal and constitutes themed Supplements that bring together conference and study session proceedings as well as essays dedicated to academics.
Champs helléniques modernes et contemporains (CHMC) then Mondes méditerranéens et balkaniques (MMB)
The first series (CHMC), which hosted six volumes from 2000 to 2007, was followed by a second (MMB) in 2008 which definitively fixed the editorial line of this collection on the model of Suppléments au BCH in the antique and Byzantine section. This collection supports the production of data from field surveys or the analysis of archive holdings. It hosts collective works and monographs.
Sources et documents
The Sources et documents collection presents the diplomatic and/or critical publication of documents, travel diaries, field notebooks from excavations, photographic archives, drawings, notes and letters that reflect the research carried out in Greece, the Balkans and all of the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Recherches franco-helléniques
This collection is a tribute to the Greek scientific and cultural world, in which the French School at Athens has its place, and with which it collaborates.
Travaux et mémoires des anciens membres étrangers de l’École et divers savants
As its name suggests, the collection hosted, until 1978, the work of foreign members of the French School at Athens who now publish in the BEFAR collection. It has reference and landmark works.
Sites et monuments, Guides
Indispensable works, generally brief, to explore the great Greek archaeological sites: Delphi, Delos, Argos, Thasos, etc. The Guides provide first-hand information from the latest research by specialists.
Excavations and site studies
The French School at Athens publishes the primary data acquired on the various sites excavated by the institution (topography, architecture of monuments, archaeological material etc.). Several geographic and thematic collections are devoted to this :
Fouilles de Delphes (FD), Exploration archéologique de Délos (EAD), Études chypriotes, Études crétoises, Études péloponnésiennes, Études thasiennes, Recherches archéologiques franco-albanaises (RAFAL)
These series constitute reference corpora in research in the history and archaeology of the ancient worlds.
As Georges Radet already noted in his Histoire et œuvre de l'École française d'Athènes "Of all the auxiliary sciences of history, the cultivation of epigraphy by the School has produced the most fruit", and continues “The School, for thirty years [we are in 1901], has become a nursery for epigraphers. It has discovered and published more inscriptions than any similar Institute ”(p. 185-186).
One hundred and twenty years after these lines, the excellence of the French School at Athens for epigraphic studies is well established. It is highlighted in several large collections which aim to publish in the form of reference books the inscriptions discovered on the major archaeological sites explored by the institution, such as the Inscriptiones Graecae or the Corpus des inscriptions de Délos.
With the Corpus des inscriptions de Délos, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres decided to continue on its own the publication of this fundamental work with the support of the Fondation du Duc de Loubat. This was how volume I was published in 1921 and 1932, in 2 fascicles of a Choix d’Inscriptions de Délos. During the interwar period two successive volumes appeared relating to the accounts of the hieropics (1926, 1929) and three volumes bringing together texts from the time of the second Athenian domination (after 166 BC) (1935, 1937), then, in 1950 and 1972, two volumes devoted to inscriptions from the archaic and classical periods. AIBL continues to carry out the production of indexing volumes for this vast corpus.
Several collections of the French School at Athens publish epigraphic corpora. Études thasiennes, for example, hosted the first volume of the Corpus épigraphiques de Thasos in 2019; the BEFAR collection regularly delivers epigraphic studies. Two collections are specifically dedicated to epigraphy.
The Corpus des inscriptions de Delphes
Its ambition is clearly outlined in the introduction to the first volume published in 1977: "The publication of the inscriptions of Delphi according to the places of discovery (volume III of Fouilles de Delphes) is complete. All of the Delphi inscriptions – published in Fouilles de Delphes, in the Bulletin de correspondance hellénique and other journals, and in the Sammlung der griechischen Dialektinschriften, or even unpublished – will be included in a Corpus where the documents will be grouped by categories. Sacred laws and religious regulations form the subject matter of the first volume of this Corpus. Other volumes will be devoted to proclamation decrees, dedications, acts of emancipation, accounts of the temple of Apollo, funeral inscriptions, etc."
The Études épigraphiques bring together, in the same tradition, thematic corpora (choix d’inscriptions) as well as geographic corpora (Philippes), including sites outside those explored by the French School at Athens (Thessaly, Illyria, Epirus).