  We derive the star formation histories of early-type galaxies at z = 1.2 in
both low and high density environments. To this purpose, we compare the
co-added spectroscopic and 8-9 band photometric data of 43 mass selected
early-type galaxies in the massive cluster RDCS J1252.9-2927 and the
GOODS/CDF-S field with a large grid of composite stellar population models. We
find that the cluster early-type galaxies formed the bulk of their stars
approximately 0.5 Gyr earlier than early-types in the field, whereas field
early-types presumably finish forming their stellar content on a longer time
scale. Such a difference is particularly evident at lower masses but becomes
negligible for the most massive galaxies. While our differential analysis of
the stellar population parameters of cluster and field galaxies in the same
mass range convincingly shows distinct star formation histories, the absolute
age difference remains model dependent. Using the star formation histories that
best fit the SEDs of the red sequence galaxies in RDCS 1252.9-2927, we
reconstruct the evolution of the cluster red sequence and find that it was
established over 1 Gyr and is expected to dissolve by z ~ 2.
