Mabillon

Mabillon, John (1632-1707), a French writer on ecclesiastical biography, antiquities, etc., and on diplomacy, was born in Champagne, studied at the abbey of Saint Remy, became a Benedictine monk in 1654, and was ordained priest in 1660. After helping to edit St. Bernard's works, he began to write the Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti, in nine volumes (1668-1702), followed up (1701-7) by four volumes of Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti. In 1681 he produced his treatise De Re Diplomatica, Lib. VI, after which King Louis XIV. commissioned him to collect, in Italy, books and MSS. for the royal library. Mabillon lived many years and died at St. Germain des Pres.