LABIGNE, 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 renowned preacher.
To refute the Centuriators of Magdeburg, he began in 1575 the publication of the Bibliotheca sanctorum Patrum (8 vols. in-folio 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 volumes, thus justifying the title of Magna Bibliotheca (ed. Cologne 1618, Paris 1644), and Maxima Bibliotheca (Lyon 1677).
BIBL.: Th. Itzig, De bibliothecis..., Leipzig 1707, pp. 30-49, 92, 98, 106-45, 420-77, 483-557; I. de Ghellinck, Patristique et moyen âge, II, Brussels-Paris 1947, p. 15 ff.