MABILLON, JEAN

born Nov. 23, 1632, near Reims, Fr. died Dec. 27, 1707, Paris French monastic scholar, antiquarian, and historian who pioneered the study of ancient handwriting (paleography). He entered Saint-Rmi Abbey, Reims, in 1653 and became a Benedictine monk the following year. He was ordained priest (1660) at Corbie, Fr., before moving in 1664 to St. Germain-des-Prs, Paris, headquarters of the Maurists, a congregation of French Benedictine scholars. He worked there for 20 years, coediting in 1667 the works of Abbot St. Bernard of Clairvaux and Lives of the Benedictine saints (9 vol., 16681701). With the aid of his colleagues, Mabillon wrote De Re Diplomatica (1681; supplement, 1704), in which he established the principles for determining the authenticity and dates of medieval manuscripts. De Re Diplomatica founded the science of diplomaticsthe critical study of the formal sources of historyand practically created Latin paleography, the science fundamental to European diplomatics. De Re Diplomatica challenged the Jesuit Daniel Papebrochwho had declared that nearly all Merovingian documents were spurious and that no authentic charters survived from times before AD 700and caused a major controversy between the Benedictines and the Jesuits. In 1691 Mabillon had to defend the Maurists' mode of living against Abbot de Ranc of La Trappe, Fr. (founder of the reformed Cistercians called Trappists), who favoured manual work for monks. The ensuing dispute caused Mabillon to write (169192) Trait des tudes monastiques (Treatise on Monastic Studies) and Rflexions sur la rponse de M. l'abb de la Trappe (Reflections on the Reply of the Abbot of La Trappe); both works embodied the Maurists' ideas and program for ecclesiastical studies. Generally considered the greatest of the Maurists, Mabillon died amid the colossal production of the Benedictine Annals, 4 vol. (170307; vol. 5, posthumously, 1713; vol. 6, the work of other authors, 1739). Additional reading T. Ruinart, Abrg de la vie de D.J.M. (1709), reprinted in 1933 as Mabillon; Henri Leclercq, Life, 2 vol. (195357); J.U. Bergkamp, Dom Jean Mabillon and the Benedictine Historical School of Saint-Maur (1928).