Abstract
This study proposes to put into perspective two paradigms of historicity—history and memory—around the figure and precepts of Pierre de Coubertin. To achieve this, it calls on both a broad historiographical review and a large collection of archives deposited at the Sciences Po History Center in Paris by Geoffroy de Navacelle, grandnephew of the pedagogue and spearhead of his memorial defense. The article thus participates in questioning, among others, the notions of objectification and subjectivation, rupture and continuity, knowledge and identity, facing one of the most controversial personalities of the twentieth century. The challenge here is to demonstrate how history and memory distinguish themselves, discourse, and finally dialogue with each other in a quest for the present conjugated with the past. Or how the epistemological approach helps in understanding the matrix of historicity inherent in the past-living.