Michel Tardieu (born 10 April 1938) is a French scholar working on religious currents in

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

and in the

Near NEAR or Near may refer to: People * Thomas J. Near, US evolutionary ichthyologist * Near, a developer who created the higan emulator Science, mathematics, technology, biology, and medicine * National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR), a former ...

and

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

. He was born in

Mareuil, Dordogne Mareuil (; Limousin: ''Maruelh''), known locally as Mareuil-sur-Belle, is a former commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Mareuil en Périgord.

and educated in a '' petit séminaire'' and with the Dominicans in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

before becoming a researcher in state

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

. Work in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

and neighbouring countries led to the acquisition of a number of Late Antique Near Eastern languages, extending to extensive familiarity also with

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

. Tardieu was appointed to the

École pratique des hautes études The École pratique des hautes études (), abbreviated EPHE, is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is highly selective, and counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions. It is a constituent college o ...

Vth section (where he succeeded

Pierre Hadot Pierre Hadot (; ; 21 February 1922 – 24 April 2010) was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy specializing in ancient philosophy, particularly Neoplatonism. Life In 1944, Hadot was ordained, but following Pope Pius XII’s encyc ...

) and subsequently to the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...

(1991). He has worked mainly on

Manichaeism Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...

and

Gnosticism Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people ...

, on currents related to these in

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion and one of the world's History of religion, oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian peoples, Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a Dualism in cosmology, du ...

. Tardieu has published on

Nag Hammadi Nag Hammadi ( ; ar, نجع حمادى ) is a city in Upper Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile in the Qena Governorate, about north-west of Luxor. It had a population of close to 43,000 . History The town of Nag Hammadi is name ...

and other major 20th-century discoveries of texts in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and the wider Near East. A theory of Tardieu's, which has remained far from securing unanimous adhesion, developed in his work, ''Les paysages reliques'' (1990), concerns a hypothetical removal by

Simplicius of Cilicia Simplicius of Cilicia (; el, Σιμπλίκιος ὁ Κίλιξ; c. 490 – c. 560 AD) was a disciple of Ammonius Hermiae and Damascius, and was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. He was among the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian i ...

and other

Athenian Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Neoplatonic Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some ide ...

writers after the closure of the Schools by

Justinian Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

(529) to

Harran Harran (), historically known as Carrhae ( el, Kάρραι, Kárrhai), is a rural town and district of the Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey, approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Urfa and 20 kilometers from the border cr ...

(or Carrhae) in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

Selected bibliography

Books

* ''Trois mythes gnostiques. Adam, Éros et les animaux d'Égypte dans un écrit de Nag Hammadi (II, 5)'', éd. Brepols, 1974 * ''Le manichéisme'', coll.

Que sais-je? "Que sais-je?" (QSJ) (; Literally: "What do I know?", ) is an editorial collection published by the Presses universitaires de France (PUF). The aim of the series is to provide the lay reader with an accessible introduction to a field of study wr ...

, n°1940, éd. P.U.F., 1997 (éd. orig. 1981) * ''Écrits gnostiques. Codex de Berlin'', éd. Cerf, 1984 * ''Introduction à la littérature gnostique, I. Collections retrouvées avant 1945'', in collaboration with J.-D. Dubois, éd.Cerf/CNRS, 1986 * ''Études manichéennes. Bibliographie critique 1977-1986'', éd. Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1988 * '' Les paysages reliques. Routes et haltes syriennes d'Isidore à Simplicius'', éd. Vrin, 1990 * ''Recherches sur la formation de l'Apocalypse de Zostrien et les sources de Marius Victorinus'', coll. Res Orientales, IX, éd. Vrin, 1996

Editions and series

* H. Lewy, ''Chaldæan Oracles and Theurgy. Mysticism, Magic, and Platonism in the Later Roman Empire'', Nouvelle édition par M. Tardieu, éd. Brepols, 1978 * Michel Tardieu, ''Les Règles de l'interprétation'', éd. Cerf, 1987 * Michel Tardieu, ''La Formation des canons scripturaires'', éd. Cerf, 1993 * B. Lauret et M. Tardieu (éd.), ''A. v. Harnack. Marcion. L’évangile du Dieu étranger. Une monographie sur l’histoire de la fondation de l’Église catholique'', trad. B. Lauret et suivi de contributions de B. Lauret, G. Monnot et É. Poulat, avec un essai de M. Tardieu, éd. Cerf, 2005 (éd. orig. 2003)

Articles

* * Michel Tardieu, ''Les Gnostiques dans la Vie de Plotin'', in: L. Brisson et al. (éd.), ''Porphyre. La Vie de Plotin'' (vol. II), éd. Vrin 1992, pp. 503-563.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tardieu, Michel Living people People from Dordogne 1938 births 20th-century French historians 21st-century French historians French historians of religion Academic staff of the Collège de France Academic staff of the École pratique des hautes études