The International Arthurian Society (IAS) was formed in the course of the second Arthurian Congress, which was held in Quimper in 1948 and which brought together scholars interested in Arthuriana from France, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States. Jean Frappier, the President, Roger Sherman Loomis and Eugène Vinaver took the initiative; all those present at the Congress were convinced that "the study of Arthurian literature and of the 'Matter of Britain', because of its broad reach and the variety of approaches and problems that it addressed, was beginning to constitute a distinct discipline, and that the time had come to coordinate the efforts of Arthurian scholars world-wide" (Jean Frappier, Bibliographical Bulletin of the International Arthurian Society (BBIAS), 1, 1949, p. 5).