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Du Chesne

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DU CHESNE [Latinized Duchenius, Querneus, or [[Quercetanus], Andre]] (1584-1640), French geographer and historian, generally styled the father of French history, was born at IleBouchard, in the province of Touraine, in May 1584. He was educated at Loudun and afterwards at Paris. From his earliest years he devoted himself to historical and geographical research, and his first work, Egregiarum seu selectarum lectionum et antiquitatum liber, published in his eighteenth year, displayed great erudition. He enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu, a native of the same district with himself, through whose influence he was appointed historiographer and geographer to the king. He died in 1640, in consequence of having been run over by a carriage when on his way from Paris to his country house at Verriere. Du Chesne's works were very numerous and varied, and in addition to what he published, he left behind him more than loo folio volumes of manuscript extracts now preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale (L.Delisle, Le Cabinet des manuscrits de la bibliotheque imperiale, t. L, 333-334). Several of his larger works were continued by his only son Francois du Chesne (1616-1693), who succeeded him in the office of historiographer to the king. The principal works of Andre du Chesne are - Les Antiquites et recherches de la grandeur et majeste des rois de France (Paris, 1609), Les Antiquites et recherches des villes, châteaux, &c., de toute la France (Paris, 1609), Histoire d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse, et d'Irelande (Paris, 1614), Histoire des Papes jusqu' a Paul V (Paris, 1619), Histoire des rois, ducs, et comtes de Bourgogne (1619-1628, 2 vols. fol.), Historiae Normanorum scriptores antiqui (1619, fol., now the only source for some of the texts), and his Historiae Francorum scriptores (5 vols. fol., 1636-1649). This last was intended to comprise 24 volumes, and to contain all the narrative sources for French history in the middle ages; only two volumes were published by the author, his son Francois published three more, and the work remained unfinished. Besides these du Chesne published a great number of genealogical histories of illustrious families, of which the best is that of the house of Montmorency. His Histoire des cardinaux francais (2 vols. fol. 1660-1666) and Histoire des chanceliers et gardes des sceaux de France (1630) were published by his son Francois. Andre also published a translation of the Satires of Juvenal, and editions of the works of Alcuin, Abelard, Alain Chartier and Etienne Pasquier.