Marc H. Smith (born 25 July 1963) is a French historian and
palaeographer. Born in Newcastle upon Tyne in England, he has both
French and
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
citizenship.
Education
Marc Smith obtained his
archivist
An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can cons ...
palaeographer degree as major (valedictorian) of the 1988 class of the
École Nationale des Chartes
The École Nationale des Chartes (; ) is a French ''grande école'' and a constituent college of Université PSL, specialising in the auxiliary sciences of history, historical sciences. It was founded in 1821, and was located initially at the A ...
with a thesis entitled ''La France et sa civilisation vues par les Italiens au XVIe'', then started his career as curator at the
Archives nationales (1988–1994).
Career
A former member of the
École française de Rome (1990–1993), doctor of the
École pratique des hautes études with a thesis on ''Les Italiens à la découverte de la France au XVIe : géographie, voyages et représentations de l'espace'' (1993),
he was general secretary of the École nationale des chartes (1995–1998), and since professor of medieval and modern palaeography. In 2013, he was also elected director of studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, section of Historical and Philological Sciences (chair of Palaeography and history of writing in Latin characters). He also taught at the University Paris-Sorbonne (1998–2000), the
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
of New York (2014–2016), and head of the ''Mellon Summer Institute in Vernacular Paleography'' (Center for Renaissance Studies, Newberry Library, Chicago, et Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles) for French palaeography (since 2008).
He is president of the International Committee for Latin Palaeography (2015-2020), member of the Hebrew paleography Committee, former secretary (2002-2011) and former president (2014) of the
Société de l'histoire de France, co-editor of the series ''Monumenta Palaeographica Medii Aevi'' (Brepols; with
Jean-Pierre Mahé and Élisabeth Lalou), member of the editorial boards of ''
Scriptorium'', ''Gazette du livre médiéval'', and the ''Ménestrel'' portal,
Site Ménestrel
/ref> member of the reading committee of ''Scrineum Rivista'', and former editor of the '' Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes'' journal.
Work
His research mainly concern the evolution of the Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...
in its long term linguistic, technical, cognitive and cultural situations, from Roman inscriptions to digital typography. He contributed to the expertise of many manuscripts and other objects listed in public and private collections, and the restoration of the château du Bois-Orcan in Noyal-sur-Vilaine (registration of the chapel, 2008). He is preparing a catalog of calligraphic collections published by French up to 1815, preserved in European and American collections.
Books
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* Avec Laura Light, Script, New York, ''Les Enluminures'', series "Primer" (n° 9), 39 p. (, SUDOC 193836718)
Scientific editions
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Articles
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References
External links
Fiche
on the site of the École des Chartes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Marc
21st-century French historians
French palaeographers
French archivists
École Nationale des Chartes alumni
Academic staff of the École Nationale des Chartes
École pratique des hautes études alumni
Academic staff of the École pratique des hautes études
Scientists from Newcastle upon Tyne
1963 births
Living people