GINGUENE, PIERRE LOUIS French author, was born at Rennes, in Brittany. He was educated at a Jesuit college in his native town, and came to Paris in 1772. He wrote criticisms for the Mercure de France, and composed a comic opera, Pomponin (1777). The Satire des satires (1778) and the Confession de Zulme (17 79) followed. His defence of Piccini against the partisans of Gluck made him still more widely known. He welcomed the Revolution, and joined Giuseppe Cerutti, the author of the Memoire pour le peuple francais (1788), and others in producing the Feuille villageoise, a weekly paper addressed to the villages of France. Imprisoned during the Terror, he escaped death by the downfall of Robespierre. He assisted, as director-general of the "commission executive de l'instruction publique," in reorganizing the system of public instruction, and was an original member of the Institute of France. In '797 he was for a few months minister plenipotentiary to the king of Sardinia. He was appointed a member of the tri bunate, but Napoleon had him expelled at the first "purge," and Ginguene returned to his literary pursuits. He was one of the commission charged to continue the Histoire litteraire de la France. Ginguene's most important work is the Histoire lit teraire d'Italie (14 vols., 1811-35), unfinished at the time of his death. The last five volumes were written by Francesco Salfi and revised by Pierre Daunou.
See D. J. Garat, Notice sue la vie et les ouvrages de P. L. Ginguene, prefixed to a catalogue of his library (1817).