(Bernard de), a very learned Benedictine of the congregation of St Maur, singularly famous for his knowledge in Pagan and ecclesiastical antiquities, was born of an ancient and noble family in Languedoc, in 1655. He served for some time in the army; but the death of his parents mortified him so with regard to the world, that he commenced Benedictine monk in 1675, and applied himself intensely to study. Though Montfaucon's life was long, healthy, retired, and laborious, his voluminous publications seem sufficiently to have employed the whole; exclusive of his greatest undertaking, for which he will be always memorable. This was his Antiquité expliquée, written in Latin and French, illustrated with elegant plates, in 10 vols folio, to which he added a supplement of 5 vols more. He died at the abbey of St Germain in 1741.