Jean Sarrailh (14 October 1891 – 28 February 1964) was a French historian who specialized in the history and culture of Spain in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In June 1914 he submitted a thesis on Antonio Liñán y Verdugo, author of the Gula y Avisos de forasteros (1620).

[2] In 1916 Sarrailh was invited by Ernest Mérimée, director of the French Institute of Madrid, to come and teach there, and also act as secretary.

He soon began to give a course on Spanish language and literature at the University of Poitiers Faculty of Arts, became a lecturer there in 1930 and a professor in 1934.

[3] With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) he was forced to interrupt his researches into 18th century Spain in the Madrid archives and libraries.

[4] Sarrailh was involved in UNESCO from the early days of that organization, and was part of the French delegation to the International Conference in Mexico in 1947.