COSNE, a town of central France in the department of Nievre, on the Loire at its junction with the Nohain, 37 m. N.N.W. of Nevers by the P.L.M. railway. Pop. (1931) 6,128. It is mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary under the name of Con date, but it was not till the middle ages that it rose into importance as a military post. In the 2th century the bishop of Auxerre and the count of Nevers agreed to a division of the supremacy over the town and its territory. The church of St. Aignan (1 2th cent.) was restored in the i6th and i8th centuries; the only portions in the Romanesque style are the apse and the north-west portal. It formerly belonged to a Benedictine priory depending on the abbey of La Charite (Nievre). The chief industries are the manufacture of files and flour-milling.