Maurus Dantine (1688–1746) was a Belgian

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

of the Congregation of Saint-Maur and chronologist.

Biography

He was born at Gonrieux near

Namur Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namur stands at the confl ...

on 1 April 1688. Like many of the members of his

congregation Congregation may refer to: Religion *Church (congregation), a religious organization that meets in a particular location *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administrative body of the Catholic Church *Religious congregation, a type of religious instit ...

he was one of the so-called Appelants who in 1713 did not accept the

Papal Bull A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden Seal (emblem), seal (''bulla (seal), bulla'') traditionally appended to authenticate it. History Papal ...

Unigenitus ''Unigenitus'' (named for its Latin opening words ''Unigenitus Dei Filius'', or "Only-begotten Son of God") is an apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull promulgated by Pope Clement XI in 1713. It opened the final phase of the Janse ...

", but appealed to a general council. He died in the monastery of the "Blancs-Manteaux" in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

on 3 November 1746.

Works

Dantine's chief merit is the work he did in

chronology Chronology (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , , ; and , ''wikt:-logia, -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the deter ...

; he can, in reality, be called one of the founders of this branch of history, on account of the carefully elaborated plan he drew up for the great publication: . He did most of the preparatory work for this publication, constructing more exact chronological tables and introducing a better method for calculating historical dates. Due to illness, he was unable to continue his labours and was obliged to leave their completion to other members of his order, his chief successor being Charles Clémencet. He also devoted himself to linguistic studies and as a result of these published a translation with commentary of the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

under the title: (Paris, 1739). This work attracted so much attention that in the same year a second, and in the following year a third edition became necessary. In collaboration with Pierre Carpentier he prepared a new edition of the great lexicon originally published in 1678 by

Du Cange Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange (; December 18, 1610 in Amiens – October 23, 1688 in Paris, aged 77), also known simply as Charles Dufresne, was a distinguished French philologist and historian of the Middle Ages and Byzantium. Life Educate ...

, and afterwards continued by the Maurists, its first Benedictine editor being Claude Guesnié, who was followed by Nicolas Toustain and Louis Le Pelletier. The edition of Dantine and Carpentier, half as large again as that of Du Cange, appeared in six volumes at Paris, 1733–36, under the title: The 1913

Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...

praises the value of Dantine's edition for the knowledge of Latin and the study of law and morals in the Middle Ages.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dantine, Maurus 1688 births 1746 deaths Roman Catholic priests from the Austrian Netherlands Historians from the Austrian Netherlands Belgian Benedictines Congregation of Saint-Maur