CHARLES DU FRESNE, Sieur du, one of the most learned writers of his time, was born at Amiens on the 18th December 1610. His father, who was royal provost of Beauquesne, sent him at an early age to the Jesuits' College in Amiens, where he soon distinguished himself by his application and quickness of apprehension. Having completed the usual course at this seminary, he applied himself to the study of law at Orleans, and afterwards went to Paris, where he was received as advocate before Du Cange, the parliament in August 1631. He frequented the courts for some time; but meeting with little or no success as a barrister, he returned to his native country, where he applied himself to the study of history in all its branches. After the death of his father, Du Cange married, on 19th July 1638, Catherine Du Bos, daughter of a treasurer of France, at Amiens; and seven years afterwards, in 1647, he purchased the same office, the duties of which in no degree interfered with or retarded the great literary works in which he had engaged. The plague, which in 1668 desolated the city, forced him to leave Amiens, and go to establish himself at Paris, where he was enabled to consult charters, diplomas, titles, manuscripts, and a multitude of printed documents, which were not to be met with elsewhere. M. d'Héronval, his friend, procured for him many curious pieces, and often aided him in his researches. In 1688 he was seized with strangury, and died of the effects of that malady on the 23rd October the same year.

To the attributes of a good son, a good husband, and a good father, Du Cange united those of extreme gentleness, affability, and modesty. His industry was exemplary and unremitting; and notwithstanding the length to which his career extended, the number of his literary works would be incredible, if the originals, all written in his own hand, were not still extant. In his productions are united the characters of a consummate historian, an exact geographer, a profound jurist, an enlightened genealogist, a learned antiquary, and one deeply versed in the science of medals and inscriptions. He knew almost all languages, possessed a thorough acquaintance with the belles-lettres, and from a vast number of manuscripts and original documents drew much curious information respecting the manners and customs of the darkest ages. The learned prefaces of his glossaries afford ample proofs of his philosophical genius, and are, of their kind, models in point both of matter and of style. "Where," said Bayle, "is the learned man among the nations most distinguished for their perseverance in labour, and the patience necessary for copying and making extracts, who does not admire the talents of Du Cange in this respect, and consider him as unrivalled in the pursuits to which he devoted himself? If any one has doubts on the subject, it is only necessary to send him ad pergamum libri; let him turn over the leaves of these dictionaries, and, be he ever so little learned, he will see that they could not have been composed, except by one of the most laborious and most patient men the world ever produced." Du Cange published the following works: 1. Histoire de l'Empire de Constantinople sous les Empereurs Francais. Paris, 1657, folio. 2. Traité Historique du Chef de S. Jean-Baptiste. Paris, 1666, 4to. 3. Histoire de S. Louis, Roi de France, écrite par Jean, sire de Joinville. Paris, 1668, folio. 4. Joannis Cinnami Historiarum de rebus gestis a Joanne et Manuele Commeni Libri VI, Graece et Latine, cum Notis historiciis et philologicis. Paris, 1670, folio. 5. Memoire sur le projet d'un nouveau Recueil des Historiens de France, avec le plan général de ce Recueil, inserted in the Bibliothèque Historique de la France, by Pére Lelong. 6. Glossarium ad Scriptores medie et infimae Latinitatis. Paris, 1678, 3 vols. fol. 7. Lettre du Sieur N. Conseiller du Roi, à son ami M. Ant. Wion d'Héronval, au sujet des Libelles qui de temps en temps se publient en Flandres contre les RR. PP. Henriciani et Papelroch, Jésuites. Paris, 1682, 4to. 8. Historia Byzantina duplici Commentario illustrata. Paris, 1680, fol. 9. Joannis Zonarae Annales ab exordio Mundi ad mortem Alexii Comneni, Graece et Latine, cum Notis. Paris 1686, 2 vols. fol. 10. Glossarium ad Scriptores medie et infimae Graecitatis. Paris, 2 vols. fol. 11. Chronicon Paschale à Mundo condito ad Heraclii Imperatoris annum vigesimum. Paris, 1689, fol. This last work was passing through the press when Du Cange died; and, on his demise, it was edited by Baluze, who published it with an éloge of the author prefixed. After the death of this remarkable man, his manuscript autographs, and his extensive and valuable library, passed to his eldest son, Philip du Fresne, a man of information, but who died, unmarried, four years after his father. François du Fresne, the second son, and two sisters, then received the succession and sold the library, when the greater part of the manuscripts was purchased by the Abbé du Champs, who made no use of them, but handed them over to a bookseller called Mariette, who re-sold part of them to Baron Hohen-dorf. The remaining part was acquired by D'Hozier, the genealogist. But the French government, sensible of the importance of all the writings of Du Cange, succeeded, after much trouble, in collecting the greater portion of the manuscript autographs of this eminent scholar; and although they had been scattered in Paris, Amiens, and Vienna, very few of them were lost. Among these manuscripts was one, entitled Gallia, a work of incredible erudition, being a history of France, divided into seven epochs, with a number of dissertations, the greater part of which are finished and ready for the press, whilst, in regard to those which are not so abundant materials have been provided for completing the author's design.