GAGUIN, ROBERT

Humanist, poet, historian, and ecclesiastic; b. Callone-sur-Lys, Diocese of Artois, c. 1433; d. Paris, May 22, 1501. Although a Fleming by birth, he was French by nationality. Having been schooled by the trinitarians (known also as Mathurins), he later joined the order and in 1473 was elected their general. He was a professor at the Sorbonne and dean of the Faculty of Canon Law. Much influenced by Guillaume Fichet, with him he celebrated the introduction of printing in Paris and was enthusiastic over Latin elegance. erasmus and reuchlin both studied with Gaguin in Paris. His correspondence, including letters to Erasmus and M. ficino, is a storehouse of information concerning humanism and reform in Paris at the end of the 15th century; the publication of his letters in 1498 was a significant event in the development of humanism in France.

After 1485 his energies were increasingly turned away from humanistic activities and given to diplomacy and various missions: Italy in 1486, England in 1489–90, and Germany in 1492. He was ambassador to England in 1489–90, at a time when Thomas more was in Archbishop morton's household, and More's allusion, "Gaguin, who neither disparages the honor of the French nor broadcasts our honor," glances at this and at Gaguin's best-known work, De origine et gestis Francorum compendium (1495). He is also the subject of J. Skelton's Recule ageinst Gaguyne. His travels brought him into contact with bessarion, Ermolao barbaro, pico della mirandola, and Publio Fausto Andrelini—all distinguished humanists.

Theologically he is noteworthy for his writings in verse and in prose on the immaculate conception, and in 1497 he published the Statuta ordinis fratrum sanctae Trinitatis et redemptionis captivorum. In addition to his translations of Latin prose and verse, which included Caesar's Commentaries in 1485, he translated Alain Chartier's Curial into French and imitated him in his Débat du laboureur, du prestre et du gendarme.

Bibliography: r. gaguin, Epistole et orationes, ed. l. thuasne, 2 v. (Paris 1903). a. renaudet, Préréforme et humanisme à Paris … (2d ed. Paris 1953). antonio de la asunciÓn, Diccionario de los escritores trinitarios de España y Portugal, 2 v. (Rome 1898–99) v. 2. k. gaquoin, Denkschrift zum 400. Todestage des R.G. (Heidelberg 1901). a. palmieri, Dictionnaire de théology catholique ed. a. vacant et al. 15 v. (Paris 1903–50) 6:996–998. f. simone, "R. G. ed il suo cenaculo umanistico," Aevum 13 (1939) 410–476. v. zollini, Enciclopedia cattolica 5: 1851. d. erasmus, Opus epistolarum, ed. p. s. allen, 12 v. (Oxford 1906–58) 1:146, 241. The Correspondence of Sir Thomas More, ed. e. f. rogers (Princeton 1947) 36. h. m. fÉret, Catholicisme 4:1699–1700.

[r. j. schoeck]