DUCAEUS. See Fronton Du Duc.
DU CANGE, dil editzh, CHARLES DU FRESNE, SIEUR: French historian and lexicographer; b. at Amiene (84 m, n. of Paris) Dec. 18, 1610; d. at Paris Aug. 18,=1688. He was educated at the Jesuit college of his native city; and' studied law at the University of Orl6ane, after which he became treasurer of Amiena. His life was devoted, however, to the study of the Middle Ages, and his first work was his Histatre de l'empire de Conatantinopla sane les empereura françaia (Paris, 1857). In 1668 the plague which raged in Amiene led him to re move to Paris, where he spent the remainder of his life. In considering the importance of the works of Du Cange it must be borne in mind that the Renaissance, with its admiration for Greece and Rome, and the Reformation had little sympathy with any study of the Middle Ages. Medieval Latin and the Romance languages had thus far found no investigator, nor was there any chronology, numismatics, archeology, paleography, or geography of that period. His writings, both printed and unprinted, embrace, on the other hand, not only the general history of medieval Europe, but also the history of France and the Byzantine Empire. His chief works are the Gloasaritrm ad scnptorea medics et in fcmca Latinitofia (3 vols., 1828; enlarged edition in 8 vols., 1733-38; supplement by P. Carpentier, 4 vols., 1788; and by L. Diefenbach, Frankfort, 1857, 1887; abridgment with additions and corrections by J. C. Adelung, 8 vols., Halle, 1772-84; moat recent edition of the Gloasarium, including the additions of Carpentier, Adelung, and others, by L. Favre, 10 vols., Niort, 188387; a con venient abridgment in one vol. by W. H. Maigne d'Arnis, Paris, 1868) and the Glosaarium ad scrip torea media et in fimee Grcscitatis (2 vols., Lyons, 1888). Both these dictionaries are true encyclopedias, one for Latin Christendom in all its ecclesiastical, political, and social aspects, and the other for the Byzantine Empire, to say nothing of their lexico graphical value. In the preface to the Latin Glos sarium, moreover, the author gives the history of the decay of the Latin language and sketches the earli est developments of French. The last work of Du Cange, which was not completed until after his death, was his edition of the Chronicon pds chale (Paris, 1888).
Bibliography: L. Faugbre, Eaeai ear la vie et lae ouwapes de Du Canpe, Paris, 1852; H. Hsrdouin, Esaai eur is aria et our ka ouvrapes de . . . Du Canpe, ib. 1849.
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