GABUN

gabun, a district on the west coast of africa, one of the colonies forming french congo (q.v.). it derives its designation from the settlements on the gabun river or rio de gabao. the gabun, in reality an estuary of the sea, lies immediately north of the equator. at the entrance, between cape joinville or santa clara on the n. and cape pangara or sandy point on the s., it has a width of about 10 m. it maintains a breadth of some 7 m. for a distance of 40 m. inland, when it contracts into what is known as the rio olambo, which is not more than 2 or 3 m. from bank to bank. several rivers, of which the komo is the chief, discharge their waters into the estuary. the gabun was discovered by portuguese navigators towards the close of the 15th century, and was named from its fanciful resemblance to a _gabao_ or cabin. on the small island of konike, which lies about the centre of the estuary, scanty remains of a portuguese fort have been discovered. the three principal tribes in the gabun are the mpongwe, the fang and the bakalai. gace brule (d. c. 1220), french _trouvere_, was a native of champagne. it has generally been asserted that he taught thibaut of champagne the art of verse, an assumption which is based on a statement in the _chroniques de saint-denis_: "si fist entre lui [thibaut] et gace brule les plus belles chancons et les plus delitables et melodieuses qui onque fussent oies." this has been taken as evidence of collaboration between the two poets. the passage will bear the interpretation that with those of gace the songs of thibaut were the best hitherto known. paulin paris, in the _histoire litteraire de la france_ (vol. xxiii.), quotes a number of facts that fix an earlier date for gace's songs. gace is the author of the earliest known _jeu parti_. the interlocutors are gace and a count of brittany who is identified with geoffrey of brittany, son of henry ii. of england. gace appears to have been banished from champagne and to have found refuge in brittany. a deed dated 1212 attests a contract between gatho brusle (gace brule) and the templars for a piece of land in dreux. it seems most probable that gace died before 1220, at the latest in 1225. see gedeon busken huet, _chansons de gace brule_, edited for the societe des anciens textes francais (1902), with an exhaustive introduction. dante quotes a song by gace, _ire d'amor qui en mon cuer repaire_, which he attributes erroneously to thibaut of navarre (_de vulgari eloquentia_, p. 151, ed. p. rajna, florence, 1895).