DU CANGE

du cange, charles du fresne, sieur (1610-1688), one of the lay members of the great 17th century group of french critics and scholars who laid the foundations of modern historical criticism, was born at amiens on the 18th of december 1610. at an early age his father sent him to the jesuits' college at amiens, where he greatly distinguished himself. having completed the usual course at this seminary, he applied himself to the study of law at orleans, and afterwards went to paris, where in 1631 he was received as an advocate before the parliament. meeting with very slight success in his profession, he returned to his native city, and in july 1638 married catherine dubois, daughter of a royal official, the treasurer in amiens; and in 1647 he purchased the office of treasurer from his father-in-law, but its duties did not interfere with the literary and historical work to which he had devoted himself since returning to amiens. forced to leave his native city in 1668 in consequence of a plague, he settled in paris, where he resided until his death on the 23rd of october 1688. in the archives of paris du cange was able to consult charters, diplomas, manuscripts and a multitude of printed documents, which were not to be met with elsewhere. his industry was exemplary and unremitting, and the number of his literary works would be incredible, if the originals, all in his own handwriting, were not still extant. he was distinguished above nearly all the writers of his time by his linguistic acquirements, his accurate and varied knowledge, and his critical sagacity. of his numerous works the most important are the _glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis_ (paris, 1678), and the _glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae graecitatis_ (lyons, 1688), which are indispensable aids to the student of the history and literature of the middle ages. to the three original volumes of the latin _glossarium_, three supplementary volumes were added by the benedictines of st maur (paris, 1733-1736), and a further addition of four volumes (paris, 1766), by a benedictine, pierre carpentier (1697-1767). there were other editions, and an abridgment with some corrections was brought out by j.c. adelung (halle, 1772-1784). the edition in seven volumes edited by g.a.l. henschel (paris, 1840-1850) includes these supplements and also further additions by the editor, and this has been improved and published in ten volumes by leopold favre (niort, 1883-1887). an edition of the greek _glossarium_ was published at breslau in 1889. du cange took considerable interest in the history of the later empire, and wrote _historia byzantina duplici commentario illustrato_ (paris, 1680), and an introduction to his edition and translation into modern french of geoffrey de villehardouin's _histoire de l'empire de constantinople sous les empereurs francais_ (paris, 1657). he also brought out editions of the byzantine historians, john cinnamus and john zonaras, as _joannis cinnami historiarum de rebus gestis a joanne et manuele comnenis_ (paris, 1670) and _joannis zonarae annales ab exordio mundi ad mortem alexii comneni_ (paris, 1686). he edited jean de joinville's _histoire de st louis, roi de france_ (paris, 1668), and his other works which may be mentioned are _traite historique du chef de st jean baptiste_ (paris, 1666); _lettre du sieur n., conseiller du roi_ (paris, 1682); _cyrilli, philoxeni, aliorumque veterum glossaria_, and _memoire sur le projet d'un nouveau recueil des historiens de france, avec le plan general de ce recueil_, which has been inserted by jacques lelong in his _bibliotheque historique de la france_ (paris, 1768-1778). his last work, _chronicon paschale a mundo condito ad heraclii imperatoris annum vigesimum_ (paris, 1689), was passing through the press when du cange died, and consequently it was edited by etienne baluze, and published with an _eloge_ of the author prefixed. his autograph manuscripts and his large and valuable library passed to his eldest son, philippe du fresne, who died unmarried in 1692. they then came to his second son, francois du fresne, who sold the collection, the greater part of the manuscripts being purchased by the abbe du champs. the abbe handed them over to a bookseller named mariette, who resold part of them to baron hohendorf. the remaining part was acquired by a member of the family of hozier, the french genealogists. the french government, however, aware of the importance of all the writings of du cange, succeeded, after much trouble, in collecting the greater portion of the manuscripts, which were preserved in the imperial library at paris. some of these were subsequently published, and the manuscripts are now found in various libraries. the works of du cange published after his death are: an edition of the byzantine historian, nicephorus gregoras (paris, 1702); _de imperatorum constantinopolitanorum seu inferioris aevi vel imperii uti vocant numismatibus dissertatio_ (rome, 1755); _histoire de l'etat de la ville d'amiens et de ses comtes_ (amiens, 1840); and a valuable work _des principautes d'outre-mer_, published by e.g. rey as _les familles d'outre-mer_ (paris, 1869). see h. hardouin, _essai sur la vie et sur les ouvrages de ducange_ (amiens, 1849); and l.j. feugere, in the _journal de l'instruction publique_ (paris, 1852).