Gabriel de Foigny

Gabriel de Foigny (ca. 1630–1692), born in Picardy, is the author of an important utopia, La Terre Australe connue, 1676.

Life
All that is known about Foigny, including his identity (the book was printed without his name), is based exclusively on the second edition of Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique (1701, under "Sadeur"). He was born in Lorraine and became a Franciscan, but left the order. He moved near Geneva, now as a Protestant, and made a living as a tutor. The Terre australe connue was printed at Geneva, as if from Vannes.

In English

 * Gabriel de Foigny. The Southern Land, Known (La Terre Australe connue, 1676). Trans. and ed. David Fausett. Syracuse UP, 1993