Marc Fumaroli

Marc Fumaroli was born June 10, 1932 in Marseille. A historian and essayist, he was elected to the Académie française March 2, 1995 and became its Director. He is also a member of the Académie des Inscriptions, the sister academy devoted to high erudition. Following his appointment to a chair in Seventeenth Century Studies at the University of Paris-IV, La Sorbonne (1980), he was elected to a Chair in Rhetoric and Society in Europe (16th and 17th century) at the Collège de France. He held it from 1986 to 2002, until mandatory retirement, and is now an emeritus professor. He is acknowledged for the revival of Rhetoric as field of study of European culture, in a sharp move away from both structuralism and post-modernism. His pioneering work remains L'Age De l'Eloquence (1980). This massive work redrew the map of rhetorical scholarship across Europe. Fumaroli was also a member of the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought. He is a recipient of the prestigious Balzan Prize, the "Nobel" of the humanities (in 2001). He is a foreign member of the British Academy and of the American Philosophical Society.