GABRIEL DU, a distinguished lawyer, was born at Angers in 1573. He went afterwards to Paris, and pled with eclat before the parliament and great council. Upon his return to Angers, he became a counsellor in the presidial court. He was consulted by all the neighbouring provinces, and had an active hand in all the great affairs of his time. Mary de Medicis conferred upon him the office of master of requests, and in her disfavour wished to support herself by his credit and counsels; but Du Pineau, always attentive to what he owed on the one hand to the mother of his king, and on the other to the king himself, never ceased to inspire that princess with sentiments of peace.

In 1632 Louis XIII. by way of reward, appointed him mayor and captain-general of the city of Angers; a situation in which he merited the flattering title of Father of the People. He had no respect of persons; for he was equally accessible to the poor and the great. This worthy citizen died the 14th of October 1644, at the age of 71. His house was a kind of academy, where regular conferences were held, and attended by young officers, advocates, and other literary characters. In those conferences every one freely stated the difficulties which occurred to him upon subjects either of law or history; and when Pineau spoke, all was made clear; but he was always the last in delivering his sentiments, because he perceived that too much deference was paid to his opinion. His writings are, 1. Latin notes, in addition to those of Du Moulin, upon the canon law, and printed along with the works of that eminent lawyer by the care of Francis Pinson. 2. Commentaries, observations, and consultations, upon several important questions respecting the laws both of Anjou and of France, with some dissertations upon different subjects, &c., reprinted in 1725, in 2 vols folio, by the care of Livoniere, who has enriched them with very useful remarks. The editor says, that "Du Pineau is a little inferior to the celebrated Du Moulin on the civil law, but that he is more accurate than the other upon the canon law."—Menage made these two verses upon his death:

Pinellus peritit, Themidis pius ille sacerdos, In proprio judice limine perpetuus.