Raynaud entered the
École Nationale des Chartes in 1870. In 1875, he graduated as archivist-paleographer. The subject of his thesis was the study of the
Picard dialect in
Ponthieu in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This work was favorably viewed by his advisors
Natalis de Wailly and
Paul Meyer, evaluating it as an excellent analysis of phonetic phenomena and grammatical rules. Published the following year in the ''
Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, the study on the dialect of Ponthieu earned Raynaud the fourth mention in the Antiquities of France'' competition at the
Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres. The same year saw the related works of
Léon Clédat's on
Bertran de Born and of
Jacques Normand on a
chanson de geste,
Aiol and Mirabel. Normand joined forces with Raynaud and Clédat for the overhaul of his thesis in
Aoil: chanson de geste. He also collaborated with
Gaston Paris on the work ''Mystère de la passion d'Arnould Gréban'' (1878), concerning the works of organist
Arnoul Gréban. In 1876, Raynaud joined the department of manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale, remaining for nearly fourteen years. In 1889, he left the library to devote himself more freely to his favorite works. These included being administrator and the editor of the considerable work of the fourteenth century poet
Eustache Deschamps. In 1882, he collaborated with
Henri-Victor Michelant on the
Itinéraires à Jérusalem et descriptions de la Terre Sainte, rédigés en français aux XIe, XIIe [et] XIIIe siècles; in 1887,
Les Gestes des Chiprois, a collection of French chronicles written in the East in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the work of Gérard de Montréal and
Philippe de Navarre. == Publications ==