QUÉTIF, JACQUES

Dominican scholar and literary historian; b. Paris, Aug. 6, 1618; d. there, March 2, 1698. He was professed in the Dominican order in 1635 and ordained in 1642. After spending a few years in the ministry, he returned in 1652 to the priory of the Annunciation, rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, and there spent the rest of his life as librarian.

Quétif's major achievement was the launching of the monumental history of Dominican writers. He traveled widely in France, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands and corresponded with leading contemporary scholars in his search for materials. At his death he had completed 800 articles and had gathered material on about 2,000 other lives. The work was continued and amplified by Jacques Échard, who published it between 1719 and 1721 under the title Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum.

Quétif also edited the Vie de Savonarole par Pico de la Mirandole, révélations, épîtres et autres écrits de Savonarole; the Formalis explicatio summae theologiae divi Thomae of Jerome de Medicis; and the canons of the Council of trent. He composed a biography of Bartholomew of the Martyrs and one of john of st. thomas for an edition of his works.

Bibliography: j. quÉtif and j. Échard, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum (New York 1959) 2.2:746–747. r. creytens, "L'Oeuvre bibliographique d'Échard: Ses sources et leur valour," Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 14 (1944) 43–71. m. gasnier, Les Dominicains de St. Honoré (Paris 1950).

[j. f. hinnebusch]