LE BLANT, EDMOND-FRÉDÉRIC. - French epigrapher and archaeologist, b. in Paris on 12 Aug. 1818, d. there on 5 July 1897. He completed literary and legal studies. He held a post 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, Frs. G. Marchi and R. Garrucci and entered into contact 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 Instruction permission to travel in order to collect ancient Christian inscriptions of Gaul. In 1852 he presented a selection of Christian inscriptions earlier than the 8th century, which then became the first volume of the collection, published in 1856: the second volume came out in 1856 and a supplement in 1892. Le B. took up again the study of the acts of the martyrs, but with a method different from Ruinart's, maintaining that, amid the mass of errors of dates, names and fantastic details, there are also found in the unsound Acts ancient elements worthy of consideration. As early as 1849 he showed the importance of Christian sarcophagi. From 1883 to 1889 he directed the « Ecole française de Rome ». Le B.'s publications amount to more than 400, concerning especially inscriptions and sarcophagi.
Works (only some are recalled): Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIIIe siècle, réunies et annotées (I, Paris 1856; II, ibid. 1865); La question du vase de sang (ibid. 1858); Manuel d'épigraphie chrétienne d'après les marbres de la Gaule accompagné d'une bibliographie spéciale (ibid. 1868); Etudes sur les sarcophages chrétiens antiques de la ville d'Arles (ibid. 1878); Les Actes des martyrs. Supplément aux Acta sincera de dom Ruinart (ibid. 1883); Sarcophages chrétiens de la Gaule (ibid. 1886); L'épigraphie chrétienne en Gaule et dans l'Afrique romaine (ibid. 1890); Nouveau recueil des inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIIIe siècle (ibid. 1892).