Charles Pietri (18 April 1932 – 7 August 1991) was a 20th-century French historian and university professor.

A former pupil at the Lycée Thiers [fr], Pietri entered the École normale supérieure in 1952 and obtained his agrégation d'histoire. He spent some times at the École française de Rome. In 1961, he was a research associate at the CNRS, and was an assistant at the Sorbonne from 1963 to 1966. He then became an assistant professor at the University of Lille, then a lecturer at Paris-Nanterre. He dedicated his doctoral thesis, published in 1976, to the study of Roma Christiana from 311 to 440. In 1975, he succeeded Henri-Irénée Marrou and held the chair of history of Christianity at the University Paris-Sorbonne. From 1983 to 1991 he was director of the École de Rome. On 17 November 1989, he was elected a corresponding member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres.^[1]

With his wife Luce Pietri, Jean-Marie Mayeur, André Vauchez and Marc Venard, Pietri initiated a monumental Histoire du christianisme des origines à nos jours, published from 1992 to 2001 at Éditions Desclée de Brouwer [fr] and meant to replace the Histoire de l’Église by Augustin Fliche. He also directed, with Luce Pietri, the second volume of the Prosopographie chrétienne du bas-empire on Italy (2000), an endeavour started by Jean-Rémy Palanque and Henri-Irénée Marrou. Contributors to the two-volume prosopography on Italy included Janine Desmulliez, Christine Friasse-Coué, Élisabeth Paoli-Lafaye, Charles Pietri, Luce Pietri, and Claire Sotinel.

Pietri authored other works and articles fundamental to the historic understanding of ancient Christianity:

• Le Monde latin antique et la Bible, with Jacques Fontaine, vol. II of the series "Bible de tous les temps", 1985
• Christiana respublica : éléments d'une enquête sur le christianisme antique, series of the École Française de Rome, 1997

• Chevalier, Légion d'honneur
• Ordre des Palmes Académiques
• Officier, Ordre national des lettres
• Officier, Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
• Commander, Order of St Gregory the Great
• Member of the Pontifical Academy of Archaeology^[2]