Frédéric Mistral was born on September 8th 1830 in the small Provencal village of Maillane, in the "Mas du juge".
Occitan writer, Frédéric Mistral was the driving force in the creation of the “Félibrige” along with Joseph Roumanille, Théodore Aubanel, Anselme Mathieu, Paul Giera, Jean Brunet and Alphonse Tavan.

During all his youth passed near the Alpilles regional park, the only spoken language he could hear was that of Provence. At twelve years old, as he studied at the Dupuy boarding school where he met Joseph Roumanille who was a surpervisor. Roumanille surprised him while he was writing some poetries. .
Since, along with Anselme Mathieu, friend of Frédéric Mistral, they created, without knowing it yet, the first gathering of the “Félibres”.

Frédéric Mistral obtained his bachelor’s degree in Nîmes, in the year 1847 and then, decided to go back to the family farmhouse to work as a farmer. But this profession was not of his kind and decided to return to studying and integrated a law school in Aix-en-Provence.

He got there his initials contacts with the noble history of Provence. In the city of Aix-en-Provence, he discovered the way of life in theatres and thanks to the library of Méjanes, learned more about the works of the troubadours.


Three years after, Frédéric Mistral graduated from the law school and chose to return to Maillane. We are then in 1851, an essential moment of his life as he realized what was his real great desire: allow the resurrection of the “old language” thanks to the prestige of poetry.

In 1876, he was elected Capoulié (President) of the Félibrige, after the publication of the first official status of this association.

Joseph Roumanille was the first poet who made Frederic Mistral introduce and conclude one of his books called “Li Prouvencalo”.

Two congresses took place afterward in Aix-en-Provence and Arles just before the official Félibrige rise, on May 21st of 1854, thanks to Mistral, Roumanille and the five other young poets referred to above.

His epic poem, “Mirèio” (Mireille) which is about love passions subjected to romantic fate, takes place in the Rhône Provencal area.
This work remains as one of the greatest masterpieces of Provence poetry and even of the French literary works.
Charles Gounod will even make an opera of it in 1863.
Elected to fellowship in the Academy of Marseille in 1887, Frédéric Mistral won in 1904 the Nobel prize of literature for this writing.
Eight years after the publication of “Mirèio”, Mistral wrote “Calendal”, in which still appears the determination of independence of Provencal people.

Mistral starts then a laborious work to become the author of “Lou Tresor dóu Felibrige” (1878-1886), which is still the richest dictionary of the Occitan language, and one of most reliable for Provenal word's meaning and spelling.
This book is a French Occitan bilingual dictionary, in two greats volumes which gather the whole dialects of Oc language, written at the Frédéric Mistral’s way.

Thanks to his works, Mistral rehabilitated the Occitan language, as he placed it among the best epic poetries.

Frédéric Mistral is also the legacy of the “Museon Arlaten”, museum founded in 1896 which is located in Arles.

He died on March 25th, 1914 in Maillane where he is buried.