Amiens France Monument-for-Dufresne-du-Cange-01

Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange (; December 18, 1610 in

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...

– October 23, 1688 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, aged 77), also known simply as Charles Dufresne, was a distinguished French

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

and historian of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion () was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' continued to be used as a n ...

Life

Educated by

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

, du Cange studied law and practiced for several years before assuming the office of Treasurer of France. Du Cange was a busy, energetic man who pursued historical scholarship alongside his demanding official duties and his role as head of a large family. Du Cange's most important work is his ''Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae Latinitatis'' (Glossary of writers in

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

and late

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, Paris, 1678, 3 vol.), revised and expanded under various titles, for example, ''Glossarium manuale ad scriptores mediae et infimae Latinitatis'' (Halae, 1772–1784) or from 1840 onward, ''Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis'' (Glossary of medieval and late Latin). This work, together with a glossary of

and late Greek that he published ten years later, has gone through numerous editions and revisions and is still consulted frequently by scholars today. Du Cange's pioneering work distinguished medieval Latin and Greek from their earlier classical forms, marking the beginning of the study of the historical development of languages. Du Cange mastered languages in order to pursue his main scholarly interests, medieval and Byzantine history. He corresponded voluminously with his fellow scholars. His great historical and linguistic knowledge was complemented by equally deep learning in archaeology, geography and law. In addition to his glossaries, he produced important new editions of Byzantine historians and a number of other works. His extensive history of Illyria was not published until 1746 by Joseph Keglevich, who partially corrected it.Illyricum vetus et novum, 1746.
/ref> Du Cange is one of the historians

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English essayist, historian, and politician. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for ...

cites most frequently in his ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''. In one footnote he calls du Cange "our sure and indefatigable guide in the Middle Ages and Byzantine history."

Works

* * Du Cange, et al., ''Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis'', Niort: L. Favre, 1883–1887 (10 vol.)
searchable full-text online edition, by the École nationale des chartes
* ''Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis'
images online on the French National Library's website
* ''Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis'
7-volume (1840-1850) on the Stanford University Library website
* ''Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae Graecitatis'', Lugduni: Apud Anissonios, 1688 (2 vol.)
Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae Graecitatis
from the Digital Library of Modern Greek Studies "Anemi", University of Crete, Greece
Les Familles d'Outremer
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Life

Works

Notes

Further reading