keeper of the books of the king's cabinet, and member of the French Academy and also of that of Inscriptions and Belles-lettres, was born at Castres on the 6th April 1651. He had a great genius and inclination for learning, and studied at Saumur under Tanneguy Le Fevre, who was then engaged in the instruction of his daughter, who afterwards proved an honour to her sex under the name of Madame Dacier, and with whom her future husband was associated in study. This gave rise to that mutual tenderness which a marriage of forty years could not weaken. The Duke of Montausier hearing of his merit, put him in the list of commentators for the use of the Dauphin, and engaged him in an edition of Pomponius Festus, which he published in 1681. His edition of Horace, printed at Paris in ten volumes 12mo, and his other works, procured him a great reputation. He was made a member of the Academy of Inscriptions in 1695. When the history of Louis XIV. by medals had been finished, he was chosen to present it to his majesty; who being informed of the pains which he had bestowed on it, settled upon him a pension of 2000 livres, and appointed him keeper of the books of the king's cabinet in the Louvre. When that post was united to the office of library-keeper to the king, he was not only continued in the privilege of his place during life, but the survivorship thereof was granted to his wife, a favour of which there had been no instance before. But the death of Madame Dacier in 1720 rendered this grant, which was so honourable to her, ineffectual. Her husband died on the 18th September 1722, of an ulcer in the throat. In his manners, sentiments, and whole conduct, he was a complete model of that ancient philosophy of which he was so great an admirer, and which he improved by the rules and principles of Christianity.

M. Dacier published successively, 1. The Works of Horace, Paris, 1681, in 10 vols. 12mo; 2. The Moral Reflections of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus, with remarks, and a life of the imperial moralist, Paris, 1690, in 2 vols. 12mo; 3. The Poetics of Aristotle, translated into French, with notes, Paris, 1692, 4to and 12mo; 4. The Oedipus and Electra of Sophocles, with notes, Paris, 1692, in one vol. 12mo; 5. Plutarch's Lives, translated into French, with notes, Paris, 1696, 4to; 6. The Works of Hippocrates, translated into French, with notes, Paris, 1697, in 2 vols. 12mo; 7. The Works of Plato, translated into French, Paris, 1699, in 2 vols. 12mo; 8. The Life of Pythagoras, with his symbols and golden verses, with the Life of Hierocles, and his Commentary on the Golden Verses, Paris, 1706, 12mo; 9. The Manual of Epictetus, with a translation and notes, Paris, 1715, in 2 vols.