Michel Pastoureau is a French specialist in medieval history, who was born in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 on 17 June 1947. He studied at the École Nationale des Chartes

École Nationale des Chartes

The École Nationale des Chartes is a grand établissement, an elite French university-level educational institution based in Paris. It provides education and training for archivists and librarians and forms part of the University of Paris.-History:...

, a college for prospective archivist

Archivist

An archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...

s and librarians. After writing his 1972 thesis about heraldic bestiaries

Bestiary

A bestiary, or Bestiarum vocabulum is a compendium of beasts. Bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals, birds and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson...

 in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, he worked in the coins, medals and antiquities department of the French National Library until 1982.

Since 1983 he has held the Chair

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of History of Western Symbol

Symbol

A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...

ism (Chaire d'histoire de la symbolique occidentale) and is a director of studies at the Sorbonne's École pratique des hautes études

École pratique des hautes études

The École pratique des hautes études is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions....

. He is an academician of the Académie internationale d'héraldique

Académie Internationale d'Héraldique

L'Académie Internationale d'Héraldique is a prestigious body that was founded in Paris in 1949 to bring together experts in heraldry representing the various areas of the world. Admission is by election, and the number of active academicians is limited to 75. There is no limit to the number of...

(International Academy of Heraldry) and vice-president of the Société française d'héraldique (French Heraldry Society). When he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lausanne

University of Lausanne

The University of Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of theology, before being made a university in 1890. Today about 12,000 students and 2200 researchers study and work at the university...

 in 1996, he was described as an eminent scholar who has made a radical contribution to several disciplines.

Professor Pastoureau has published widely, including work on the history of colours, animals, symbols, and the knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

s of the Round Table

Round Table (Camelot)

The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of...

. He has also written on emblem

Emblem

An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...

s and heraldry, as well as sigillography

Sigillography

Sigillography is one of the auxiliary sciences of history. It refers to the study of seals attached to documents as a source of historical information. It concentrates on the legal and social meaning of seals, as well as the evolution of their design...

 and numismatics

Numismatics

Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...

.

Works in English translation

• Black: The History of a Color (Princeton 2008), ISBN 0-691-13930-2
• Blue: The History of a Color (Princeton 2001), ISBN 0-691-09050-5
• The Devil's Cloth: A History of Stripes (Columbia 2001), ISBN 0-231-12366-3
• Heraldry: its origins and meaning (Thames & Hudson 1997), ISBN 0-500-30074-7
• The Bible and the Saints, with Gaston Duchet-Suchaux (Flammarion 1994), ISBN 2-08-013564-3

Selected works in French

• L'ours. Historie d'un roi déchu, éditions du Seuil, 2007
• Les chevaliers de la Table ronde, éditions du Gui, 2006, ISBN 2-9517417-5-8
• Une histoire symbolique du Moyen Âge occidental, Seuil, La librairie du XXIe siècle, Paris, 2004, ISBN 2-02-013611-2 (Trad. esp.: Una historia simbólica de la Edad Media occidental, Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores S.A, 2006, ISBN 84-935187-3-5)
• Traité d'héraldique, Grands manuels Picard, first published 1979, latest edition 2003
• Bleu: Histoire d'une couleur, éditions du Seuil, 2002
• Les animaux célèbres, Bonneton, 2001
• Les emblèmes de la France, éditions Bonneton, Paris, 1998
• Jésus chez le teinturier: couleurs et teintures dans l'Occident médiéval, Le Léopard d'or, Paris, 1997, ISBN 2-86377-150-7
• Figures de l'héraldique, Découvertes Gallimard, 1996
• Dictionnaire des couleurs de notre temps, Bonneton, Paris, 1992
• L'étoffe du diable: une histoire des rayures et des tissus rayés, éditions du Seuil, 1991
• La vie quotidienne en France et en Angleterre au temps des chevaliers de la Table ronde, Hachette 1991, ISBN 2-01-017737-1
• L'hermine
  Ermine (heraldry)
  Ermine is a heraldic fur representing the winter coat of the stoat . Many skins would be sewn together to make a luxurious garment, producing a pattern of small black spots on a white field...
  
   et le sinople
  Sinople
  Sinople was a term for a kind of red earth used as a pigment in antiquity.It can refer to:*sinople, also sinoper, a term for "red", and later "green" in heraldry, see Sinople...
  
  , études d'héraldique médiévale, Le Léopard d'or, Paris, 1982, ISBN 2-86377-017-9