Pierre Nova, a French scholar whose ideas about the role of memory and identity in the writing of history gained prominence both in France and abroad, and who became a kingpin in his country’s intellectual community through his influence over publishing, died on June 2 in Paris. He was 93.

Mr. Nora’s major contribution to historiography was the concept of “lieux de mémoire” (sites of memory), a term he coined to describe elements of the past that a community chooses to remember and which become symbolic of a shared identity. Examples would be Joan of Arc, the national anthem “La Marseillaise,” and the rooster — “le coq gaulois” — as an unofficial icon of France.