LE BLANT, EDMOND-FRÉDÉRIC. — French epigraphist and archaeologist, born in Paris on 12 August 1818, died there on 5 July 1897. He pursued literary and legal studies. He held a position at the Ministry of Finance; in 1846 he composed, in collaboration, a history of ceramics, published in 1862.
In 1847, for reasons of health, he moved to Rome, where he met, among other scholars, Fathers G. Marchi and R. Garrucci, and entered into a relationship with G. B. De Rossi, then a young man of 25, who guided him through the catacombs, basilicas, and museums, communicating to him his own enthusiasm for Christian archaeology and epigraphy; so much so that Le B., having returned to his homeland in 1848, obtained from the Ministry of Public Education permission to travel in order to collect ancient Christian inscriptions from Gaul. In 1852 he presented a study of Christian inscriptions prior to the 8th century, which subsequently became the first volume of the collection, published in 1856; the second volume appeared in 1856 and a supplement in 1892. Le B. resumed the study of the acts of the martyrs, but with a method different from Ruinart’s, maintaining that, amid the errors of dates, names, and fantastic details, even the inauthentic Acts contain ancient elements worthy of consideration. As early as 1849 he demonstrated the importance of Christian sarcophagi. From 1883 to 1889 he directed the « Ecole française de Rome ». Le B.’s publications number more than 400, dealing especially with inscriptions and sarcophagi.
Works (only some are mentioned): Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIIIe siècle, réunies et annotées (I, Paris 1856; II, there 1865); La question du vase de sang (there 1858); Manuel d'épigraphie chrétienne d'après les marbres de la Gaule accompagné d'une bibliographie spéciale (there 1868); Etudes sur les sarcophages chrétiens antiques de la ville d'Arles (there 1878); Les Actes des martyrs. Supplément aux Acta sincera de dom Ruinart (there 1883); Sarcophages chrétiens de la Gaule (there 1886); L'épigraphie chrétienne en Gaule et dans l'Afrique romaine (there 1890); Nouveau recueil des inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIIIe siècle (there 1892).