Gilbert Dagron was born in 1932. A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (1953-1956) and agrégé de lettres classiques (1956), he began his career as cultural attaché to the French Embassy in Moscow, before joining the academic world in 1964 (Sorbonne and Lyon-II), where he defended his doctoral thesis in 1972. Elected to the Collège de France on October1 1975, he held the chair in History and Civilization of the Byzantine World until September1 2001. He combined this role with that of Director of the Centre de recherche d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance (1975-1997), President of the Association des études grecques (1996-1997), President of the Comité international des études byzantines (1996-2001) and finally Administrator of the Collège de France (1997-2000). In 1994, he was elected to the Institut de France and became President of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.
His wide-ranging interests bring a fresh perspective to urban history, particularly that of Constantinople, where he studied the high period (4th-5th centuries) for his doctorate, as well as its institutions (fishmongers, factions, monasticism in the5th century, the hippodrome). A pupil of Paul Lemerle, he recognized the importance of sources for Byzantine history by continuing to edit the Athos archives (Saint-Pantéléèmôn), inscriptions from Asia Minor (Cilicia), hagiographic texts (Saint Thecla) and military texts (treatise on guerrilla warfare by Nicephorus Phocas). From these rigorous analyses, he attempts to draw more global readings, forging new tools from anthropology and sociology, for example on the rural village (4th-7th century), ethnic and religious minorities (Jews, Syriacs), Christian festivals and linguistic pluralism. He also extends his research beyond the Empire's borders (Russian pilgrims to Constantinople) or beyond them, i.e. into the imaginary and the field of representations that Byzantium had of itself (the icon, the emperor-priest).
Gilbert Dagron passed away in 2015.
Notice written by Marc Verdure (Collège de France - Institute of Civilizations).