Historian and Byzantinist Paul Lemerle (1903-1989) taught at the École française d'Athènes (1931-1941), the Faculté des lettres de Dijon (1942-1947), the École pratique des hautes études (1947-1968) and the Sorbonne (1958-1967). In 1967, he was elected to the chair History and civilization of Byzantium at the Collège de France (until 1973).
His doctoral thesis on Philippi and Eastern Macedonia in the Christian and Byzantine periods (1945) already betrayed a desire to embrace a plurality of sources (monuments, inscriptions, literary texts, Athos archives) in order to nourish a regional study.
His many contributions to the history of Byzantium, from 1934 to 1990 (posthumous work), could be focused on four areas in particular. Firstly, from 1945 to 1988, he carried out extensive and constant research into the archives of the monasteries of Mount Athos and their critical editions (the monasteries of Kutlumus, the Amalfitans, Lavra in four volumes, Saint-Pantéléèmôn), leading to fruitful discoveries about the inner life of the Byzantine Empire. Secondly, a remarkable concern for lucidity and clarity in the perception of the "problems" posed by Byzantine realities: invasions and migrations in the Balkans, agrarian regime, taxation, institutions(charistikè, pronoia, roga), which gives rise to hypotheses challenged over the years with great intellectual honesty. In addition, particular research into the eleventh Byzantine century, a peak period that enables him to contemplate the past and envisage the future, and during which a certain shift takes place where Byzantium loses the political initiative. Finally, a pronounced taste for Hellenism and the transmission of ancient culture led to the writing of a book on Le Premier Humanisme byzantin (1971).
Notice written by Marc Verdure (Collège de France - Institut des Civilisations).