Claude-François Ménestrier

Claude-François Ménestrier SJ (9 March 1631 – 21 January 1705) was a French heraldist, writer, member of the Society of Jesus [Jesuit], and attendant of the royal court.

He composed numerous books on heraldry, in which he was one of the greatest authorities of his age, the professor of the colleges in Chambéry, Vienne, Grenoble, and Lyon.

[1] He was the most widely known heraldist of his time, and was from 1622 in close correspondence with Philipp Jakob Spener, the founder of the German scientific heraldry who refused the merely symbolic interpretation of arms.

In 1689 he published his Histoire du Roy Louis le Grand par les médailles.

The book was the first antiquarian history of a modern individual, and largely used medals drawn from the collection of Père François de la Chaise.