JOSEPH-AUGUSTE-MELCHIOR DUC. – Bishop and historian, born at Châtillon (Aosta) on 18 Feb. 1835, died at Aosta on 13 Dec. 1922. Ordained priest on 18 Dec. 1857, he was Bishop of Aosta (22 July 1872–Dec. 1907) and subsequently titular Archbishop of Traianopoli (19 Dec. 1907). He gave strong impetus to Catholic Action works, held eight synods, and established the minor seminary of St Anselm, opened on 27 Oct. 1890.
He published 215 pastoral letters, notable for their breadth of treatment and doctrinal solidity, and some fifty works on the ecclesiastical history of the diocese of Aosta, drawing extensively on unpublished material collected by Canon Antonio Gal. Worthy of special mention are: Cartulaire de l'évêché d'Aoste (XIIIth century), in Miscellanea di storia italiana, published by the R. Deputazione di storia patria di Torino, XXIII, Turin 1884, pp. 185-340; Documents sur l'histoire ecclésiastique du moyen âge, ibid., XXIV, 1885, pp. 335-69.
HISTORIA BYZANTINA
DUPLICI COMMENTARIO ILLUSTRATA:
PRIOR
FAMILIAS AC STEMMATA IMPERATORUM
Confratricopolitarum, cum eorumdem Augustorum
Nominatimibus, & aliquot Iconibus.
Præterea FAMILIAS Dalmaticas & Turkicas complectitur.
ALTER
DESCRIPTIONEM URBIS CONSTANTINOPOLITANAE,
quales extitur sub Imperatoribus Christianis.
Audire CAROLO DU FRESNE Domino DU CANGE, Regi a Confiliis;
de Francie apud Dominicos Sfaxlæ.
LUTETIAE PARISIORUM,
Apud LUDOVICUM BILLAINE, Bibliopolam Parisienem
CIT. 13. C. LXXX.
Cum Privilegio Regis Christiani.
(1st. Enc. Catit.)