Ménage, Gilles (1613–1692)

French scholar and writer. He founded a salon known as the ‘Mercuriales’, which gained him a European reputation but also made him many enemies, including the writers Nicolas Boileau and Molière. His publications include Les Origines de la langue française/The Origins of the French Language 1650. Menagiana, a collection of his oral opinions, was published 1693.

He was caricatured by Molière in the role of the pedant Vadius in Les Femmes savantes/The Learned Ladies 1672.