Jean-Pierre Babelon

Jean-Pierre Babelon
Jean-Pierre Babelon
President of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
	In office; 2001
Preceded by	Philippe Contamine
Succeeded by	Jean Richard
Personal details
Born	17 November 1931; 6th arrondissement of Paris, France
Died	2 February 2024 (aged 92); Paris, France
Education	École Nationale des Chartes ; École du Louvre
Occupation	Historian

Jean-Pierre Babelon (17 November 1931 – 2 February 2024) was a French historian.^[1]

Biography

Born in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, Babelon was the son of historian Jean Babelon and the grandson of historian Ernest Babelon. He graduated from the École Nationale des Chartes in 1950 with a thesis titled La demeure parisienne sous Henri IV et Louis XIII. He then became an assistant archivist for the Departmental Archives of Yvelines [fr] and subsequently studied at the École du Louvre.

The majority of his career was spent at the Archives Nationales as a curator for the Musée des Archives Nationales. In addition to his research, he was a senior lecturer at the École pratique des hautes études with a particular focus on the French Wars of Religion. From 1989 to 1996, he curated the Palace of Versailles museum. He joined the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1992 and served as its president in 2001, succeeding Philippe Contamine and preceding Jean Richard. He was responsible for the curation of the Musée Jacquemart-André and the Chaalis Abbey.

In 2010, Babelon, alongside Louis Alphonse de Bourbon, worked on the reburial of Henry IV of France at the Tombs in Saint-Denis [fr]. A ceremony for the reburial was planned by President Nicolas Sarkozy for May 2012.^[2] However, the ensuing controversy [fr] and the upcoming presidential election delayed the event, and the project was eventually abandoned by François Hollande.^[3] In 2012, he joined the scientific council Figaro histoire.^[4]

Jean-Pierre Babelon died on 2 February 2024, at the age of 92.^[5]

Historique et description des bâtiments des Archives nationales (1958)
Demeures parisiennes sous Henri IV et Louis XIII (1965)
Le Palais de justice, la Conciergerie, la Sainte-Chapelle (1966)
Richesses d’art du quartier des Halles, maison par maison (1968)
L'Église Saint-Roch à Paris (1972)
Paris monumental (1974)
Henri IV (1982)
Paris au xvie siècle (1987)
Le Marais, mythe et réalité (1987)
Châteaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance (1989)
"La Notion de patrimoine" (1995)
François Mansart. Le Génie de l’architecture (1998)
Les Fresques de Tiepolo (1998)
Chantilly (1999)
Jardins à la française (1999)
Le Château d'Amboise (2004)
Le Palais de l'Institut. Du collège des Quatre-Nations à l'Institut de France (2005)
Paris au xvie siècle (2007)
Primatice à Chaalis (2007)
L'Abbaye royale de Chaalis et les collections Jacquemart-André (2007)
L'Église Saint-Roch ou la Grâce divine en action (2008)
Les Archives. Mémoires de la France (2008)

^ "BABELON Jean-Pierre". Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (in French). Archived from the original on 23 June 2002.
^ Mourgues, Renée (24 January 2012). "Le sort de la tête d'Henri IV entre les mains de... Nicolas Sarkozy". La République des Pyrénées (in French). Retrieved 5 February 2024.
^ Gabet, Stéphane; Charlier, Philippe (2013). Henri IV, l'énigme du roi sans tête (in French). La librairie Vuibert. ISBN 978-2-311-01367-2.
^ Buisson, Jean-Christophe (29 March 2012). "Le Figaro fait l'Histoire". Le Figaro (in French). Retrieved 5 February 2024.
^ "Nécrologie : Jean-Pierre Babelon, ancien directeur du château de Versailles". Le Journal de la Haute-Marne (in French). 5 February 2024. Retrieved 5 February 2024.