MONTFAUCON, Bernard de

Bernard de Montfaucon, a member of the minor nobility of Languedoc, entered the Cadet Corps of Perpignan at the age of 17. Three years later, the loss of his parents and an illness led him to withdraw from the world. He entered the monastic life as a Benedictine monk of the congregation of Saint-Maur at the monastery of La Daurade in Toulouse, where he learned Greek, Chaldean, Hebrew, Syriac and Coptic. He was then called to Paris to the abbey of Saint-Germain des Prés where he worked with other scholars on the edition of the Greek-speaking Fathers of the Church: Saint Athanasius (1698), Saint John Chrisostom (1718)… His knowledge of ancient languages, his great interest in sculpture, painting, objects, monuments and vestiges of the past centuries led him to collect, classify and then publish his famous work L’Antiquité expliquée et représenté en figures. He is also the author of Monuments de la monarchie française, which includes the history of France, with the figures of each reign (5 volumes of engravings, 1729-1733). Brunet (III, 1861)