Jules-Joseph Guiffrey was a 19th-century French art historian, a member of the Académie des beaux-arts.

While studying law (he graduated in 1861), he was a student at the École nationale des chartes where he obtained his diploma of archivist paleographer in 1863 with a thesis entitled Examen du traité qui réunit le Dauphiné à la France et des négociations qui l’ont précédé et suivi (1349).

In 1866 he was appointed an archivist of the Emperor's archives then at the Archives nationales in the Legislative and Judicial department, where he did much of his career.

In 1893, he was appointed administrator of the manufacture nationale des Gobelins

Throughout his career, he conducted research in art history - sometimes at the expense of its archival activity. In 1866, he established the "Société de l'histoire de l'art français" and in 1872 took over Charles-Philippe de Chennevières-Pointel's Archives de l'art français under the title Nouvelles Archives de l'art français. He was also a member of the Société de l'histoire de Paris (1874), the Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques (1877), and the Comité des travaux historiques de la Ville de Paris (1879).

He was made an officer of Instruction publique in 1883, chevalier (1884) then officier (1897) of the Légion d'honneur. In 1899, he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts to seat 7 of the free members section.