Du Cange, CHARLES DUFRESNE, SIEUR DU CANGE

Du Cange, CHARLES DUFRESNE, SIEUR DU CANGE, generally styled Ducange, one of the greatest of French scholars, was born at Amiens, 18th December 1610, and became a parliamentary advocate in Paris, where he died, 23d October 1688. There was scarcely any branch of science with which he was unacquainted, but his favourite studies were classical philology and history. He wrote and edited several works on Byzantine and French history; but his principal productions are the Glossarium ad Scriptores Medicæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (3 vols. folio, Paris, 1678; much enlarged by the Benedictines of St Manr, 6 vols. folio, Paris, 1733-36, to which four supplementary volumes were afterwards added by Carpentier, a Benedictine) and the Glossarium ad Scriptores Medicæ et Infimæ Græcitatatis (Paris, 1688; new ed. Breslau, 1889-91), which are indispensable to the student of the middle ages. A new edition of the Latin Glossary was published by G. A. Henschel (7 vols. Paris, 1840-50), and final supplements were added by Diefenbach (Frankf. 1857 and 1867); a completely new edition in 10 volumes appeared in 1883-88. Du Cange left a large quantity of valuable manuscripts, which have been preserved.