Jean Bony

[1] He attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Paris, before going to the University of the Sorbonne, in 1929, where he studied under Henri Focillon, receiving his first degree in History and Geography in 1933.

[1] In 1935 he changed his focus to art history under Focillon's influence, and received a two-year fellowship from the Sorbonne to carry out research.

[1] On the outbreak of the Second World War he returned to France and served in the French Army; he was captured, and spent from 1940 to 1943 in prisoner-of-war camps, where he continued his interest in medieval architecture, writing articles, compiling notes, making detailed drawings, and giving educational talks to his fellow-prisoners.

[1] No doubt through Zarnecki's influence, Bony contributed photographs to the Courtauld Institute's Conway Library, an extensive archive of architectural images currently undergoing a digitisation process.

[4] After his retirement he held the following positions: A member of the formalist tradition,[1] Bony was the first historian to rigorously describe the structure of the “thick hollow wall”, the starting point of a general history of the constitution of the Gothic style in architecture where Norman works play a key role.