Du Cange

One of the most famous of French scholars, born at Amiens, December 18th, 1610. He adopted the profession of a parliamentary advocate in Paris, but passed the greater part of his life in study, having a remarkably versatile and retentive mind. He is well known by his works on Byzantine history, and pre-eminently by his great Glossarium ad Scriptores Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis—a treasurehouse of valuable information regarding mediaeval Latin. It first appeared in three folio volumes at Paris in 1678, and was subsequently greatly enlarged by the Benedictines of St. Maur to six volumes (Paris, 1733-36), to which four more volumes were added by the Benedictine Charpentier (1766). A new edition appeared in seven volumes by G. A. Henschel (Paris, 1840-46), to which Diefenbach added supplements (Frankfort, 1857 and 1867). Still another edition was begun in 1883 to consist of ten volumes. Besides this invaluable lexicon, Du Cange put forth a Glossarium ad Scriptores Mediae et Infimae Graecitatis (Paris, 1688); Historia Byzantina (Paris, 1680); the Annals of Zonaras, with notes (Paris, 1686); and Chronicon Paschale (Paris, 1689). See Feugère, Essai sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Ducange (Paris, 1852).