MONTFAUCON, BERNARD de. - Born on January 16, 1655 in southern France, of a noble family, he served as a soldier in 1672 in Turenne's campaign, was a Benedictine novice at Toulouse in 1675, and from 1687 was at the
GRÆCA,
SIVE
DE ORTU ET PROGRESSU
LITERARUM GRÆCARUM,
ET
De variis omnium fenderum Scriptorum Graeca generibus i itemque
de Abbreviationibus & de Notis variarum Anium
at Dicuplanum.
Addit: Figuris & Literatibus ad filos exscriptorum Indicum.
Opera & Radio D. BERNARD DE MONTFAUCON, Sacculosis
& Monachii Benedictini & Congregazione Suelli Musici.
LUDOVICIUS GERMU, sub legna S. Thomas Aquinatus.
Vatican JOANNIS BOUDOT, sub legna Salus natus. Vici Iudici.
Ex CAROLINI ROSVITEL, sub legna Arbores Palma.
MONTFAUCON DCC. VIII.
CUM PRIVILEGIO REGIE.
S. Thomas Aquinatus, sub legna S. Thomas Aquinatus.
Vatican JOANNIS BOUDOT, sub legna Salus natus. Vici Iudici.
Ex CAROLINI ROSVITEL, sub legna Arbores Palma.
(phot. Enc. Catt.)
MONTFAUCON, BERNARD de - Title page of the Palaeographia
Graeca, Paris 1708, with the author's autograph dedication (crossed out) by M.
to Clement XI. Copy from the Vatican Library.
convent of St-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, center
of the studies of the Congregation of St. Maur, where
he died on December 21, 1741, buried beside his great
confrere Mabillon.
He published: Analecta graeca sive varia opuscula graeca
hactenus edita (Paris 1688); La verité de l'histoire de Judith
(ibid. 1690); Athanasii opera omnia (2 tomes in 3 folio
vols., ibid. 1698; on this edition see H. G. Opitz, Untersuchungen zur Überlieferung der Schriften des Athanasius,
Berlin 1935, pp. 2 ff., 143, n. 1). In order to broaden his
knowledge of Greek manuscripts, M. went to Italy
(1698-1701), assuming in 1699 also the office of
procurator general of the Congregation of St. Maur
in Rome. As such he wrote under another name the apology of the
edition of the works of St. Augustine, published by the Maurins: Vindiciae editionis, Augustini a Benedectinis adornatae (Rome 1699). The journey to Italy gave a new
orientation to M.'s studies: palaeography and archaeology were
added to patristic studies (see the Diarium italicum
sive monumentorum veterum, bibliothecarum, museorum
etc. notitiae singulares in itinerario italico collectae [Paris
1702]). In the year 1708 he published the Palaeographia graeca,
sive de ortu et progressu litterarum graecarum, a masterpiece
that laid the foundations for the new science of palaeography (see V. Gardthausen, Griechische Palaeographie, II,
2nd ed., Leipzig 1911, p. 5 ff.). The principles developed in the
Palaeographia graeca were practiced by M. in his
Bibliotheca Coisliniana olim Segueriana, sive manuscripto-rum omnium Graecorum, quae in ea continentur accurata
descriptio (Paris 1715). In the field of his studies in
libraries there also belongs his Bibliotheca bibliothecarum
manuscriptorum nova (2 folio vols., ibid. 1739). Unpublished
texts he published in the Collectio nova patrum et scriptorum graecorum (2 vols., ibid. 1706). Important was his edition of the Hexapla of Origen (Hexaplorum quae supersunt,
2 folio vols., ibid. 1713). From 1718 to 1738 appeared
his edition of the works of St. John Chrysostom
(13 vols.). On this edition see Chr. Baur, St Chrysostome (Louvain 1907, pp. 83-88). The archaeological
interests of M. are revealed in his enormous publication: L'anti-quité expliquée et représentée en figures (10 folio vols.,
Paris 1719; 2nd ed., ibid. 1722, and 5 supplementary vols.,
ibid. 1724) and in the Monuments de la monarchie française (5 folio
vols., ibid. 1729-33).