DANIEL, GABRIEL. - Jesuit historiographer and polemicist, b. at Rouen on 8 Feb. 1649; d. at Paris on 23 June 1728. After a period of teaching, he was appointed royal historiographer by Luigi XIV in 1683.
The fruit of this appointment was the Histoire de France, depuis l'établissement de la Monarchie Française dans les Gaules, published at Paris (in 1 vol. in 1696; expanded to 3 in 1715 by further additions; to 7 in 1721; and to 10 in 1729). The best edition is that in 17 vols., edited and continued to the time of Luigi XIII and XIV by Fr H. Griffet (Paris 1755-60). The work, naturally superseded by later studies, has nevertheless not yet lost its value. An abridgment in 8 vols. appeared in 1724, translated into various languages (in Italian, Venice 1737). Also fundamental is the Histoire de la milice française (Paris 1721). He showed a witty and lively polemical spirit in his refutation of Descartes’s theories: Voyage du monde de Descartes (ibid. 1690); and in rebutting the calumnies of Pascal’s Provinciales: Entretiens de Cléandre et d'Eudoxe sur les lettres au provincial (Rouen 1694), which went through several editions, provoked recriminations, and was placed on the Index in 1701. Other polemical writings: Recueil de divers ouvrages philosophiques, historiques, apologétiques et de critique (ibid. 1724).