DU CANGE, dii-lcanzh', or DUCANGE, SIEUR Charles du Fresne, or Dufresne, French historian and philologist: b. Amiens, 18 Dec. 1620; d. Paris, 23 Oct. 1688. family name was Dufresne, and Sieur Ducange was his title as lord of his paternal estates. He was an alumnus of the college of the Jesuits in his native town and after completing his studies there took up the study of jurisprudence, and in 1631 was admitted to practise as an advocate at the bar of the Parliament of Paris. Meeting with discouragement in his profession, he with drew to to his native place and there devoted himself to the historical, linguistic and philo logical studies which have made him illustrious as a scholar. He was indefatigable in research, and his linguistic attainments, critical acumen and various knowledge enabled him to digest and sort out of the infinite mass of material the facts of history and the points of philology which were necessary for the composition of the many solid memoirs of which he is author.
And those works involved titanic labor even if we consider only the work of the pen in mak ing "copy)" for the printer; for every word was penned with his own hand. Of the long list of his printed works the two which are most enduringly important —and frequent
to these is imperative on whosoever studied the history of the Middle Ages at its sources — are his dictionaries of the Greek and Latin lan guages in the period of their decline. Among other writings may be named
de l'empire de Constantinople sous les empereurs
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