CHARLES LE BEAU (1701-1778), French historical writer, was born at Paris on the 15th of October 1701, and was educated at the College de Sainte-Barbe and the College du Plessis; at the latter he remained as a teacher until he obtained the chair of rhetoric in the College des Grassins. In 1748 he was admitted a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and in 1752 he was nominated professor of eloquence in the College de France. From 1755 he held the office of perpetual secretary to the Academy of Inscriptions, in which capacity he edited fifteen volumes (from the 25th to the 39th inclusive) of the Histoire of that institution. He died at Paris on the 13th of March 1778.
The only work with which the name of Le Beau continues to be associated is his Histoire du Bas-Empire, en commencant a Constantin le Grand, in 22 vols. 12mo (Paris, 1756-1779), being a continuation of C. Rollin's Histoire Romaine and J. B. L. Crevier's Histoire des empereurs. Its usefulness arises entirely from the fact of its being a faithful résumé of the Byzantine historians, for Le Beau had no originality or artistic power of his own. Five volumes were added by H. P. Ameilhon (1781-1811), which brought the work down to the fall of Constantinople. A later edition, under the care of M. de Saint-Martin and afterwards of Brosset, has had the benefit of careful revision throughout, and has received considerable additions from Oriental sources.
See his "Eloge" in vol. xlii. of the Histoire de l'Academie des Inscriptions (1786), pp. 190-207.