Gustave Charles Fagniez

Gustave Fagniez (6 October 1842 – 18 June 1927) was a French historian, a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques of the Institut de France.

His mother hosted a salon frequented by intellectuals such as Jules Simon, Paul Janet, Charles de Rémusat, Lucien-Anatole Prévost-Paradol, and the Goncourt brothers.

[1] Influenced by Eugène Despois, his teacher at Lycée Louis-le-Grand, as well as writer Jules Simon and journalist Auguste Nefftzer, founder of the Temps, Fagniez adopted Republican convictions.

[2] Abandoning the family law practice,[3] Gustave Fagniez entered the École nationale des chartes in 1864, where he studied under historian Jules Quicherat.

Appointed archivist at the Archives of the Empire in 1869, his career began with the publication of his thesis under the title Études sur l’industrie et la classe industrielle à Paris aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles (1877).