Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange

Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange (also Ducange, you Cange ) ( born December 18, 1610 Amiens, † October 23, 1688 in Paris) was a French jurist, historian and lexicographer.

You Cange was one of the greatest lexicographers in the Western tradition, at the same height with Robert Henri Estienne and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, James Murray and William A. Craigie ( Considine ).

Life

He was the fifth son of Louis Du Fresne, sieur de Frédeval et du Cange, who was royal governor of Beauquène at Amiens. This made ​​him first educate by the Jesuits at Amiens. Later he studied law at Orléans and was admitted on August 11, 1631 lawyer at the Parlement of Paris. Soon, however, he returned to Amiens, where he ten years younger than you Catherine married on July 19, 1638 Bos, the daughter of the Treasurer ( trésorier, Quaestor ) of Amiens. She brought a well-known dowry into the marriage. In the same year his father died and bequeathed him a house in Amiens and other property and the title of sieur du Cange. On June 10, 1645, he bought the previously held by his father-in office which he held until 1668. He was the father of ten children, of whom four survived him.

Even with twenty years he had written a provided with Coat of Arms genealogy of his family. Back in Amiens he devoted himself to historical studies with great zeal, so that it was said of him that he had researched six or seven hours on his wedding day. In 1657 he published the first historical work, which already contained a detailed glossary. 1668 he left Amiens because of the plague and went to Paris. There he won the friendship of Léon d' Hérouval, a scholar with the same interest, the self-sacrificing supporting him in the coming decades. You Cange rejected the appointment of a secretary and wrote everything by his own hand.

As a basis for his studies, he acquired deep knowledge of Latin and Greek language for which he worked each large dictionaries with many tangible explanations, of which the Latin Glossary ad Scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis has been extended by a number of scholars and to the 21st century for middle and younger Latin of scientists used. Even the Greek glossary is still used in research. His Historia byzantina consisting of the topography " Constantinopolis Christiana " and the genealogy of " De familiis Byzantinis ", is regarded as an important work of the Byzantine history. He also acted in the publication of the Corpus Byzantinae historiae, a source edition of Byzantine history, with.

Much of his work has not been published. Its rich estate is preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Bibliothèque d' Arsenal in Paris and in the city library of Amiens. The manuscripts show that he dealt primarily with the history of France and his native landscape, Picardy, the Latin West and the Byzantine Empire.

Works (selection)

Author or editor

  • Traité historique du chef de saint Jean -Baptiste. Paris 1665
  • Glossary ad Scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis. Paris 1678 ( 3 vols )
  • Historia byzantina duplici Commentario illustrata. Paris 1680 ( 2 vols )
  • Glossary ad Scriptores mediae et infimae Graecitatis: Glossarium ad Scriptores mediae et & infimae Graecitatis: in quo Graeca Vocabula novatae significationis ...; ex libris ed, inded, veteribusque Monumentis ... Lugduni (Lyon ). Posuel among others 1688 ( 2 vols ). - 2nd edition Paris: Welter 1905 - Reproduction Graz. Akademische Druck-u Publishing Company, 1958

Publisher

  • Geoffroy de Ville- Hardouin: Histoire de l'Empire de Constantinople sous les empereurs françois. Paris 1657 ( 2 vols )
  • Jean de Joinville: Histoire de Saint Louis Roi de France. Paris 1668
  • John Kinnamos: Historiarum de rebus gestis a Joanne et Manuele Comnenis. Paris 1670
  • John Zonaras: Annales from exordio mundi ad mortem Alexii Comneni (ed. ). Paris 1686 ( 2 vols )
  • Chronicon Paschale: a mundo condito ad Heraclii Imperatoris vigesimum annum ( after death published by Étienne Baluze ). Paris 1688
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