author
Gustave Fagniez
1842–1927
A careful French historian of the medieval and early modern past, he is best remembered for bringing the economic and social life of old France vividly into focus. His work ranges from Parisian industry in the 13th and 14th centuries to the politics of Richelieu’s age.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Paris in 1842 and later dying in Meudon in 1927, Gustave Fagniez built a reputation as a serious scholar of French history. He became a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, a sign of the esteem his work earned in France.
Fagniez is especially associated with the study of economic and social history. His research explored the world of labor, industry, and urban life in medieval Paris, and he also worked on the society and institutions of the Ancien Régime.
He wrote as well on 17th-century political history, including figures and events linked to Cardinal Richelieu. For readers today, his books offer the work of a historian interested not only in great statesmen, but also in the structures of everyday life that shaped France across the centuries.