Maurice Prou (28 December 1861, in Sens – 4 October 1930) was a French archivist, paleographer and numismatist. He studied at the École des Chartes and École française de Rome, afterwards working at the Cabinet des médailles de la Bibliothèque nationale. In 1899, following the death of Arthur Giry (1848–1899), he was appointed professor of diplomatics at the École des Chartes. In 1916 he became the school's director, a position he maintained until 1930. Within this time period (1916–1919), he also taught classes on histoire des institutions, filling in for Paul Viollet (1840–1914). Prou played a major role in the revival of history of law and its institutions during the latter part of the 19th century. He was a longtime member of the editorial board of Revue historique de droit ("Historical Review of Law") and the Société d’histoire du droit (Society of Legal History). He was also a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (from 1910), the Société archéologique de Sens and the Société française de numismatique. Source: Wikipedia (en)