Paul Jules Barbier was a French poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carré. He was a noted Parisian bon vivant and man of letters.

His libretti for operas include La Colombe, Faust, Le médecin malgré lui, Philémon et Baucis, Polyeucte, La reine de Saba and Roméo et Juliette for Charles Gounod; Galathée and Les Saisons for Victor Massé; Le pardon de Ploërmel (later revised as Dinorah) for Giacomo Meyerbeer; The Tales of Hoffmann for Jacques Offenbach; Le timbre d'argent (Camille Saint-Saëns) and Hamlet, Mignon and Francesca da Rimini for Ambroise Thomas.

He also wrote the libretto for La Guzla de l'Émir, a one-act comic opera by Georges Bizet. This was never performed and probably destroyed.

He wrote the scenario for Léo Delibes' ballet Sylvia. Charles Gounod wrote incidental music to Barbier's play Jeanne d'Arc, and the libretto to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's opera The Maid of Orleans was partially based on it.