Born on November 29, 1932, in Algiers. Died on June 5, 2025.
Education and Professional Career
- 1952–1958: Student at the École normale supérieure
- 1958: Received the agrégation in history
- 1958–1961: Member of the French School in Rome
- 1964–1993: Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Section IV, “History of Medieval Italy”
- 1972: Doctor of Letters, Sorbonne
- 1972: Lecturer
- 1973: Professor of Medieval History at the Sorbonne
- 1974–1979: Member, then Vice Chair, of the History Agrégation Examination Board
- 1974–1980: Member of the Universities Advisory Committee
- 1986–1991: Member of the National Council of Universities
- 1976: Member of the Società Romana di Storia Patria
- 1976–1980: Chair of Section 39 of the National Committee of the CNRS
- 1986–1991: Member of Section 39 of the CNRS National Committee
- 1992: Member of the National Scientific Council of the CNRS
- 1986: Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
- 1989: Member of the Academia Europaea
- 1989: Full Member of the Istituto di Studi Romani
- 1992–2003: Professor at the Collège de France, holder of the Chair in the History of the Western Mediterranean in the Middle Ages
- 1992: Member of the Academy of Sciences of Bologna
- 1992: Member of the Committee on Historical and Scientific Research, as well as the scientific and administrative boards of the Center for Advanced Studies in Medieval Civilization in Poitiers, the École nationale des Chartes, the Casa de Velázquez (Madrid), and the École française de Rome
- 1992: Director of the International Seminar on Frederick II at the Ettore Majorana Center for Scientific Culture in Erice (Sicily)
- 1992: Editor-in-Chief of the journal *Le Moyen Âge* and the *Journal des savants*
- 1992: Member of the editorial board of *Revue historique*, *Cahiers de civilisation médiévale*, *Mediaevistik* (Stuttgart), and *Revue Mabillon*
- 1995: Member of the National Committee for the Evaluation of Universities and Major Institutions
- 1996: President of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Awards and Honors
- 1973: CNRS Silver Medal
- 1975: Galileo Galilei International Prize
- 1991: “Cultore di Roma”
- 1995: Augustin-Thierry Prize from the Académie française