Charles of Fresne, sior of Cange

Charles of Fresne, sior of Cange or Of Cange , historian and glossator French, was born the December 18th 1610 with Amiens and died the October 23rd 1688 with Paris.

Biography

Of Cange the right to Orleans studied and became lawyer with the Barreau of Paris in 1631. It returned then to Amiens where it acquired the notarial load of his father-in-law. It passed to the posterity not as lawyer but like Linguiste philologist, leaving several Latin dictionaries and glossaries and Greeks whom one finds today with the National library of France. It was devoted entire to research on antiquity and the Middle Ages and deserved to be called the Varron French. Its work makes it possible to include/understand the passage operated in France of traditional Latin to imperial Latin, then with medieval Latin and finally with French.

Of Cange is among the historians most quoted by Edward Gibbon in its work Déclin and fall of the Roman Empire . In a note, Gibbon speaks about it like our “ sure and untiring guide with the Moyen-âge and in the Byzantine History . ”

It moreover published several invaluable works for the historical studies. A bronze statue was set up with Of Cange with Amiens in 1849. A Study on its life and its works was published by Leon Feugère, Paris, 1852.

Works

History of the Empire of Constantinople under the French emperors (1657), in folio making following Hist. of the conquest of City-Hardouin
History of Saint Louis by Jean de Joinville, 1668, in-fol.
Glossarium mediœ and infimœ latinitatis , 1678, 3 vol. in-fol., and, with a supplement of Pierre Carpentier, 1766. in free access on the Gallica site or the site of the bookstore of the University of Stanford
Historia byzantina , ( Byzantine History ), 1680, in folio
Zonaras , 1686, 2 vol. in-fol.
Glossarium mediœ and infimœ grœcitatis , 1688, 2 vol. in-fol., works essential for the reading of the writings of the Middle Ages
It left many manuscripts, inter alia a Géographie of France by provinces .

Random links: