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Back to article: FRANCOIS ROGER DE GAIGNIERES (1642-1715)

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GAIGNIERES, FRANCOIS ROGER DE (1642-1715), French genealogist, antiquary and collector, was the son of Aime de Gaignieres, secretary to the governor of Burgundy, and was born on the 3oth of December 1642.. He became ecuyer (esquire) to Louis Joseph, duke of Guise, and afterwards to Louis Joseph's aunt, Marie of Guise, by whom in 1679 he was appointed governor of her principality of Joinville. At an early age he began to make a collection of original materials for history generally, and, in particular, for that of the French church and court. He brought together a large collection of original letters and otherdocuments, together with portraits and prints, and had !copies made of a great number of the most curious antiquarian objects, such as seals, tombstones, stained glass, miniatures and tapestry. In 1711 he presented the whole of his collections to the king. The bulk of them is preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, and a certain number in the Bodleian library at Oxford.
See G. Duplessis, Roger de Gaignieres (Paris, 187o) ; L. Delisle, Cabinet des manuscrits, t. i. pp. 335-356; H. Bouchot, Les Portraits aux crayon des X VI' et X VII' siecles (Paris, 1884) ; Ch. de Grandmaison, Gaignieres, ses correspondants et ses collections de portraits (Niort, 1892).