Jean Léon Marie Delumeau was born in
Nantes on 18 June 1923 and obtained his early education in several Catholic boarding schools. He taught history at
École Polytechnique,
University of Rennes 2, and
University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. He was director of the Armorican Center for Historical Research (1964–1970), director of studies at the
École pratique des hautes études (1963–1975) and at
School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (1975–1978), and
professor emeritus at the
Collège de France, where he occupied the chair of "History of Religious Mentalities in the Modern
Western World" (1975–1994). He was a member of the editorial board of several academic journals and a
visiting professor at several universities in North America, Europe and Asia, and was also an honorary member of the
Institut Universitaire de France and the
Academia Europaea. On 26 February 1988, Delumeau was elected a member of the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in the chair of
Georges Dumézil. He was given his ''épée d'académicien'' on 27 September 1989 by
Philippe Wolff. During the ceremony, speeches were made by
Nicole Lemaître,
Alain Cabantous,
Michel Mollat du Jourdin, Wolff and himself. He was a candidate for the
Académie française in 2002. Delumeau died on 13 January 2020 in
Brest. Delumeau has been described as "one of the most prominent representatives of the so-called
history of mentalities" by , a French historical journal ==Awards and honors==