Sir John Rigby Hale FBA (17 September 1923 – 12 August 1999) was a British historian and translator, best known for his Renaissance studies.
He was a Fellow of the British Academy and Emeritus Professor of Italian History at University College, London, where he was head of the Italian Department from 1970 until his retirement in 1988.
His first position was as Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford, from 1949 to 1964.
He was a trustee of the National Gallery, London, from 1973 to 1980, becoming chairman in 1974.
He died seven years later in Twickenham, after which his wife, journalist and Titian biographer Sheila Hale, wrote a book about his final years titled The Man Who Lost His Language.