Molinet, Claude Du

, regular canon and procurator general of the congregation of St. Genevieve, and one of the most learned antiquaries of the seventeenth century, was born in 1620, at Chalons sur Marne, of a nohle and ancient family. He collected a large cabinet of curiosities, and placed the library of St. Genevieve at Paris in the state which has rendered it so celebrated. He died September 2, 1687, aged sixty-seven. His principal works are, an edition of the “Epistles of Stephen, bishop of Tournay,” with learned notes; “History of the Popes by Medals,” from Martin V. to Innocent XI. 1679, folio, Latin “Reflexions sur l'origine et Pantiquit6 des Chanoines séculiers et réguliers,” 4to “Dissertation sur ra Mitre des Anciens;” another “Dissertation sur une Tete d'Isis,” &c. “Le Cabinet de la Bibliotheque de Ste. Genevieve,” 1692, folio, a curious book. He was the author also of some dissertations in the literary Journals, and left several Mss. on subjects of history and antiquities. He was a man of vast research but, as his countrymen say, he was “plus rempli d'erudition que de critique,” and certainly in some cases took little pains to discriminate between the true and the fabulous. ¹