Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange

Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange or Du Cange (French: [dy kɑ̃ʒ]; December 18, 1610 in Amiens – October 23, 1688 in Paris) was a distinguished philologist and historian of the Middle Ages and Byzantium.

Charles Du Fresne

Educated by Jesuits, du Cange studied law and practiced for several years before assuming the office of Treasurer of France. Du Cange was a busy, energetic man who pursued historical scholarship alongside his demanding official duties and his role as head of a large family.

Du Cange's most important work is his Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis (Glossary of medieval and late Latin, Paris, 1678). This work, together with a glossary of medieval and late Greek that he published ten years later, has gone through numerous editions and revisions and is still consulted frequently by scholars today. Du Cange's pioneering work distinguished medieval Latin and Greek from their earlier classical forms, marking the beginning of the study of the historical development of languages.