DURUY, JEAN VICTOR (1811-1894), French historian and statesman, was born in Paris. He studied under Michelet at the Ecole Normale Superieure, and taught at the College Henri IV. at Paris for over a quarter of a century. Already known as a historian by his Histoire des Romains et des peuples soumis a leer domination (2 vols., he was appointed minister of education in 1863. Among his measures may be cited his organi zation of higher education ("enseignement special"), his founda tion of the "conferences publiques," which have now become universal throughout France, and of a course of secondary educa tion for girls by lay teachers, and his introduction of modern his tory and modern languages into the curriculum both of the lycees and of the colleges. He greatly improved the state of primary edu cation in France, and proposed to make it compulsory and gratu itous, but was not supported in this project by the emperor. In 1884 he was elected to the Academy. He died on Nov. 25, Duruy's fame rests mainly on the revised edition of his Roman history, which appeared in a greatly enlarged form in 7 vols. under the title of Histoire des Romains depuis les temps les plus recules jusqu'a la mort de Tlieodose (18 7 9-85 ), Eng. trans. by W. J. Clarke, 6 vols., 1883-86. He also wrote Histoire des Grecs (3 vols., 1886-91; Eng. trans., 4 vols., 1892) ; His toire de France de 1453 a i815 (1856; new enlarged ed. 1891) ; and other works on French history.
A memoir by Ernest Lavisse appeared in 1895 under the title of Un Ministre: Victor Duruy. See also the notice by Jules Simon (1895) , and S. Monod, Portraits et souvenirs (1897) .