PAUL MARIE VIOLLET (1840-), French historian, was born at Tours on the 24th of October 1840. After serving his native city as secretary and archivist, he became archivist to the national archives in Paris in 1866, and later librarian to the faculty of law. In 1890 he was appointed professor of civil and canon law at the ecole des chartes. His work mainly concerns the history of law and institutions, and on this subject he published two valuable and scholarly books - Droit public: Histoire des institutions politiques et administratives de la France (1890-98), and Précis de l'histoire du droit frangais (1886).