LA BIGNE, MARGUERIN de. — Patrologist, born in 1546 or 1547 at Bernières-le-Patry (Normandy), died in Paris in 1589. He studied theology at Caen and Paris, and was a famous preacher.
To refute the Magdeburg Centuriators, in 1575 he began publishing the Bibliotheca sanctorum
Patrum (8 vols. in-fol. with appendix, Paris 1579; new ed. in 9 vols. there 1589), which in successive editions (nine or ten) grew to 14, then 24, and finally 27 vols., thus justifying the title Magna Bibliotheca (ed. Cologne 1618, Paris 1644), and Maxima Bibliotheca (Lyons 1677).
BIBL.: Th. Ittig, De bibliothecis..., Leipzig 1707, pp. 30-40, 92, 98, 106-45, 420-77, 483-557; I. de Ghellinck, Patristique et moyen âge, II, Brussels-Paris 1947, p. 15 ff. Erik Peterson