ANSELME (Father Anselme of the Virgin Mary) French genealogist, was born in Paris in 1625, and died on Jan. 17 1694 at the Couvent des Petits Peres, Paris. As a layman his name was Pierre Guibours. He entered the order of the bare footed Augustinians in 1644. Honore Caille, seigneur du Fourny (1630-1713), persuaded him to publish his Histoire genealogique de la maison royale de France, et des Brands officiers de la cou ronne (1674, 2 vol.) ; after Father Anselme's death, Honore Caille collected his papers, and brought out a new edition of this highly important work in 1712.
The task was taken up and continued by two other friars of the Couvent des Petits Peres, Father Ange de Sainte-Rosalie (Francois Raffard, 1655-1726), and Father Simplicien (Paul Lucas, 1683-1759), who published the first and second volumes of the third edition in 1726. This edition consists of nine vol umes folio; it is a genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France, of the peers, of the great officers of the crown and of the king's household, and of the ancient barons of the kingdom. The notes were generally compiled from original documents, references to which are usually given, so that they remain useful to the present day. The work of Father Anselme, who spent his whole life in the study of genealogy, his collabo rators and successors, is even more important for the history of France than is Dugdale's Baronage of England for the history of England.