Antoine Pagi

Antoine Pagi

French ecclesiastical historian. Born 31 March, 1624, at Rognes in the Department of Bouches-du-Rhone; died 5 June, 1699 at Aix. After studying with the Jesuits at Aix, he entered the monastery of the Conventual Franciscans at Arles, and made solemn profession on 31 January, 1641. For some twenty-nine years he was elected provincial, an office which he held four times. He devoted his spare time to the study of history. Discerning numerous chronological errors, and frequently misstatements of facts in the "Annales ecclesiastici" of Baronius, he made it his life-work to correct them and otherwise elucidate the valuable work. Pagi's first volume was printed during his lifetime (Paris, 1689); the remaining three volumes, reaching till the year 1198, the last year in the work of Baronius, were completed in manuscript shortly before his death. The whole work was edited in four volumes by his nephew François Pagi: "Critica historico-chronologica in universos annales ecclesiasticos em. et rev. Cxsaris Card. Baronii" (Geneva, 1705; second ed., 1727). Mansi embodied it in his edition of the "Annales" of Baronius (Lucca, 1736-59). Though, on the whole, the "Critica" manifests great care and an unusual knowledge of history, it is not entirely free of errors. His other works are: "Dissertatio hypatica seu de consulibus xsareis" (Lyons, 1682), printed also in "Apparatus in Annales ecclesiasticos" (Lucca, 1740), pp. 1-136; "Dissertatio de die et anno mortis S. Martini ep. turonensis" and a few minor treatises in defense of his "Dissertatio hypatica", in which he had set down various rules for determining the consulship of the Roman emperors, and which had been attacked by Cardinal Noris and others. He also edited: "D. Antonii Paduani O. Min. sermones hactenus inediti" (Avignon, 1685).

MICHAEL OTT