Surname: Ménage Forename(s): Gilles b. 15 August 1613. d. 23 July 1692. Nationality: French. VIAF.
Poet, literary scholar, and cleric. Born in Angers, France. Son of Guillaume Ménage,
a lawyer. Had a short legal career which he abandoned due to an illness. Joined the
church and became prior of Montdidier. Established a Parisian literary salon, attracting
figures including Jean Chapelain and Paul Pellisson that shaped French classicism.
Tutored Madame de La Fayette and Madame de Sévigné. Some of his publications include
Origines de la langue française (1650), Diogenes Laërtius’s Lives of Eminent Philosophers (1664), and Historia Mulierum Philosopharum (1690), an homage to female philosophers and dedicated to the scholar Anne Lefèvre
Dacier. Biographical information: Oxford Reference. (NM)