Pierre Paul Courcelle (16 March 1912 – 25 July 1980) was a French historian who was a specialist of ancient philosophy and of Latin Patristics, especially of St Augustine.
While he was still a high school student, he had, according to his own testimony, done extensive genealogical research concerning his ancestors back to the 16th century, but found aucun homme illustre, rien que des laboureurs (no illustrious man, only peasant farmers).
In 1943, he defended his doctoral thesis on Les Lettres grecques en Occident de Macrobe à Cassiodore (The Greek literature in the West from Macrobius to Cassiodorus).
The following year, at the age of 32, he became both a professor at (what is now called) Sorbonne Université (where he succeeded Pierre de Labriolle) and director of studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes (4th section).
In 1952, succeeding Alfred Ernout as professor at the Collège de France, he held the chair of Latin literature, while remaining director of studies at the École des Hautes Etudes.