Bernard de, an eminent critical and antiquarian writer, was descended from a noble and ancient family, and was born at the chateau of Soulage, in Languedoc, in January 1655. After a short attendance at the college of Limoux, he was left to educate himself, and he passed his days in the library of the family castle, Roquetaillade, perusing books in different languages and on almost every variety of subject. During his historical readings he had become partial to a soldier's life. Accordingly, he enlisted as a volunteer in the regiment of Languedoc in 1673, and served two campaigns in Germany under Marshal Turenne. But grief for the loss of his parents rendered him weary of the world, and induced him in 1675 to assume the garb of the Benedictines in the congregation of St Maur. The rest of his biography is little else than a recital of his many important works. He now consecrated his leisure to the study of Greek and the Oriental languages. His enthusiastic devotion to learning, supported by a robust and well-regulated constitution, carried him rapidly through his extensive field of labour and research, and the result of his studies issued in quick succession from the press. The work that established Montfaucon's reputation was a new edition of Athanasius, in Latin and Greek, 3 vols. folio, 1698. His next great undertaking was the editing of the works of Chrysostom. In the prosecution of this task he spent three years in Italy, visiting the principal cities, and consulting the manuscripts in the principal libraries. In 1718, sixteen years after his return, his Chrysostom began to be published; and in 1738 it was completed in 13 folio volumes. It is still considered the best edition of that eloquent father. Montfaucon died in December 1741, at the age of eighty-seven. The most important of his other works are—

Analecta Graeca sine varia Opuscula, 4to, Paris, 1688; Diarium Italicum, 4to, Paris, 1702; Collectio Nova Patrum Gracorum, folio, Paris, 1707; Palaeographia Graeca, sine de Ortu et Progressu Literarum Gracarum, folio, Paris, 1708; Le Livre de Philon de la Vie Contemplative, 12mo, Paris, 1709; Bibliotheca Costliniana, folio, Paris, 1715; L'Antiquité Explicite et Representée en Figures, 10 vols. folio, Paris, 1719; Les Monuments de la Monarchie Française, 5 vols. folio, Paris, 1729-33; and Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum Manuscriptorum Nova, 2 vols. folio, Paris, 1739.