A 探花直播 of Cambridge Professor has been given France鈥檚 highest academic honour.

Professor Peter Bayley has been made a Commandeur dans l鈥橭rdre des Palmes Academiques.

探花直播Order, which was created by Napoleon in 1808 on his return home from his campaign in Egypt, recognises the range and impact of scholarly writing by intellectuals. Several people at the 探花直播 hold the position of Chevalier and Officier, but Professor Bayley is the only British Professor under retirement age to be made Commandeur.

Professor Bayley is the Drapers Professor of French at the 探花直播 and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. He specialises in early modern literature, especially religious writing, rhetoric and memoirs.

He is the author of French Pulpit Oratory, 1598-1650 (CUP, 1980) and Selected Sermons of the French Baroque (Garland, 1983), and the editor of ' 探花直播Equilibrium of Wit', French Forum, 1982 and Pr茅sences du Moyen 脗ge et de la Renaissance en France au XVIIe si猫cle (Romanice, 2003). He is currently co-editing a volume of essays on Saint-Simon and writing a book on Bossuet.

Professor Bayley was Head of the 探花直播's French Department from 1983 to 1996 and Chairman of the School of Arts and Humanities from 2000 to 2002.

Known as the decoration violette, in reference to the colour of the rosette worn by its members, the Order is under the patronage of the French President, the Minister for Education and the Grand Chancelier de la Legion d鈥橦onneur. It was presented by Olivier Chambard, Consellier Culturel in the French Embassy in London, at an investiture at New Hall earlier this year.

Professor Bayley said: "It is a great honour and demonstrates French concern and awareness of the teaching of their language and culture outside France".

Two other professors in the department, Wendy Bennett and Philip Ford, were made Officier at the same time, underlining the success and prestige of the Cambridge French department.

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