Josep Fontana i Lázaro (20 November 1931 – 28 August 2018) was a Spanish historian from Catalonia.

[1][2] Born in Barcelona, he received his master's degree in philosophy and letters (section history) at the University of Barcelona in 1956 and his doctorate in history by the same university in 1970.

He was a student of Jaume Vicens i Vives and Ferran Soldevila.

[1] Dr. Fontana was an active contributor to scholarly history publications after 1970, among them, l'Avenç (1976).

The Introduction to History course taught during the first cycle of the humanities track of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra is based on Fontana's book Introduction to the Study of History.