MIGNE, JACQUES-PAUL. – Priest, born at St-Flour (Auvergne) on 25 October 1800, died in Paris on 24 October 1875. Ordained in 1824, he was first a parish priest, then a journalist and highly active publisher; he knew how to surround himself with capable collaborators, such as, for example, the future Cardinal G. B. Pitra. At his death he left the memory of one of the most industrious and enterprising priests of the French Church in the nineteenth century.
Of the many publications he edited, the most important are: Theologiae cursus completus (25 vols., with another 3 of supplements, Paris 1840–45); Scripturae Sacrae cursus completus (25 vols., and another 3 of supplements, ibid. 1840–45); Encyclopédie théologique ou série de Dictionnaires sur toutes les parties de la science religieuse (52 vols., ibid. 1844–59); Nouvelle Encyclopédie théologique (53 vols., ibid. 1881–59); Troisième et dernière Encyclopédie théologique (66 vols., ibid. 1855–66); but the work that durably established his fame consists of the two patristic series: Patrologia latina, which includes the writings of 261 authors, including anonymous ones, and extends from the end of the second century to the death of Innocent III in 1216 (217 vols., with another 4 of indexes, ibid. 1844–55); Patrologia greca, in two series, one with the Greek-Latin text (161 vols., ibid. 1857–66), which is the one ordinarily cited, and the other with only the Latin text (81 vols.), extending from St. Barnabas to the Council of Florence (1439). As an index to this Greek series, F. Cavallera, Indices (Paris 1912), may serve as an essential guide; more particularly, Th. Hopfner, Patrologiae cursus completus; Series graeca, Index locupletissimus, 2 vols., Paris 1934–45.
A fire in 1868 destroyed all the equipment of M.’s printing works and put an end to his work forever.
(Alinari photograph)
MIGNARD, PIERRE, known as MIGNARD LE ROMAIN – The Virgin with the Bunch of Grapes – Paris, National Museum of the Louvre.