Hippolyte Nicolas Honoré Fortoul (4 August 1811 – 4 July 1856) was a French journalist, historian and politician.

Hippolyte Fortoul was born on 4 August 1811 in Digne, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France as the son of an attorney who began a prefectural career in 1831.

Between 1829 and 1837, he was a journalist in Paris and traveled to Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and England between 1834 and 1837.

In 1845 he was appointed professor of French literature and dean of the faculty of letters at Aix-en-Provence.

[1] After the February Revolution of 1848, Fortoul ran for 1848 Constituent Assembly election, but was defeated.