The archives of Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont (1941-2024), held at the French Institute for Anatolian Studies (IFEA), offer an exceptional perspective on both the intellectual journey of one of France’s leading specialists in Ottoman and Turkish studies and the history of Franco-Turkish scientific cooperation in the second half of the 20th century. Director of the IFEA from 1984 to 1991, Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont played a particularly important role in the development of studies devoted to Ottoman and Turkish archives in Turkey. These archives are thus invaluable not only as a researcher’s personal collection but also as a testament to the networks, institutions, projects, and forms of knowledge production that shaped this field during this period.
The size of the collection reflects the wide diversity of scientific and institutional activities, as well as the archival work carried out under Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont. Indeed, under his direction, nearly 120 boxes of archives are preserved, ranging from administrative records and correspondence to event reports (such as the 60th anniversary of the IFEA or the centenary of Charles de Gaulle), publications, scholarly works, relations with other institutions, and more. The preserved documents thus shed light not only on individual research projects, but also on the scientific environment and intellectual networks within which these projects were conceived and developed.
Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont was not only a dedicated user of archival collections; he was also a committed advocate for their preservation, professionalization, and accessibility in Turkey (see Faruk Bilici’s article on this subject on our website: https://ifea-istanbul.net/jlbg-archives-turques). Under his leadership, the IFEA became a key center for Franco-Turkish cooperation on Ottoman and Turkish archives. From 1984 onward, this cooperation brought together Turkish institutions as well as French and international archival specialists. It resulted in expert missions, assessments of the condition of Ottoman archives, restoration initiatives, professional training programs, and discussions on the creation of modern archival infrastructure. Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont played a decisive role in the implementation of these projects, notably by inviting Jean Favier, then Director General of the Archives of France and President of the International Council on Archives, to visit Turkey in 1990.
Guillaume Gug
