Père Anselme

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Père Anselme (Father Anselme of the Virgin Mary) (1625-1694) was a French genealogist.

He was born in Paris in 1625. As a layman his name was Pierre Guibours. He entered the order of the barefoot Augustinians on March 31, 1644, and it was in their monastery (called the Couvent des Petits Pères, near the church of Notre-Dame des Victoires) that he died, on January 17, 1694.

He devoted his entire life to genealogical studies. In 1663 he published Le Palais de l'honneur, which besides giving the genealogy of the houses of Lorraine and Savoy, is a complete treatise on heraldry, and in 1664 Le Palais de la gloire, dealing with the genealogy of various illustrious French and European families. These books made friends for him, the most intimate among whom, Honoré Caille, seigneur du Fourny (1630-1713), persuaded him to publish his Histoire généalogique de la maison royale de France, et des grands officiers de la couronne (1674, 2 vols. 4); after Father Anselme's death, Honoré Caille collected his papers, and brought out a new edition of this highly important work in 1712.

The task was taken up and continued by two other friars of the Couvent des Petits Pères, Father Ange de Sainte-Rosalie (François Raffard, 1655-1726), and Father Simplicien (Paul Lucas, 1683-1759), who published the first and second volumes of the third edition in 1726. This edition consists of nine volumes folio; it is a genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France, of the peers, of the great officers of the crown and of the king's household, and of the ancient barons of the kingdom.

The notes were generally compiled from original documents, references to which are usually given, so that they remain useful to the present day. The work of Father Anselme, his collaborators and successors, is even more important for the history of France than is William Dugdale's Baronage of England for the history of England.