Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange or Ducange (Amiens, December 18, 1610 – Paris, October 23, 1688) was a distinguished philologist and historian of the Middle Ages and Byzantium. The cathedral in Amiens Location within France Amiens is a city and commune in the north of France, 120 km north of Paris. ... December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... // Events January 7 - Galileo Galilei discovers the Galilean moons of Jupiter. ... The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed. ... October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 69 days remaining. ... // Events A high-powered conspiracy of notables, the Immortal Seven, invite William and Mary to depose James II of England. ... Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ...

Educated by Jesuits, du Cange studied law and practiced for several years before assuming the office of Treasurer of France. Du Cange was a busy, energetic man who pursued historical scholarship alongside his demanding official duties and his role as head of a large family. The Society of Jesus (Societas Iesu/Jesu (S.J.) in Latin) is a Christian religious order of the Roman Catholic Church in direct service to the Pope. ...

Du Cange's most important work is his Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis (Glossary of medieval and late Latin, Paris, 1678). This work, together with a glossary of medieval and late Greek that he published ten years later, has gone through numerous editions and revisions and is still consulted frequently by scholars today. Du Cange's pioneering work distinguished medieval Latin and Greek from their earlier classical forms, marking the beginning of the study of the historical development of languages. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

Du Cange mastered languages in order to pursue his main scholarly interests, medieval and Byzantine history. He corresponded voluminously with his fellow scholars. His great historical and linguistic knowledge was complemented by equally deep learning in archaeology, geography and law. In addition to his glossaries, he produced important new editions of Byzantine historians and a number of other works.

Du Cange is one of the historians Edward Gibbon cites most frequently in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In one footnote he calls du Cange "our sure and indefatigable guide in the middle ages and Byzantine history." Edward Gibbon (1737-1794). ... The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a major literary achievement of the Eighteenth Century, was written by the English historian, Edward Gibbon. ...

Link

• Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis online on the French National Library's website
• Catholic Encyclopedia article