Maurus Dantine (1688–1746) was a Belgian
Benedictine of the
Congregation of Saint-Maur and
chronologist
Chronology (from Latin ''chronologia'', from Ancient Greek , ''chrónos'', "time"; and , ''-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 ...
.
Biography
He was born at Gonrieux near
Namur
Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration.
Namu ...
on 1 April 1688. Like many of the members of his
congregation he was one of the so-called Appelants who in 1713 did not accept the
Papal Bull "
Unigenitus", but appealed to a general council. He died in the monastery of the "Blancs-Manteaux" in
Paris on 3 November 1746.
Works
Dantine's chief merit is the work he did in
chronology; 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: "L'Art de vérifier les dates historiques, des chartes, des chroniques et autres monuments, depuis la naissance de J.-C.". 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 Charles Clémencet (17035 August 1778) was a French Benedictine historian.
He was born in Painblanc, in present-day Côte-d'Or, and was one of the authors who helped complete the great chronological work (the usual short form of a long title). H ...
.
He also devoted himself to linguistic studies and as a result of these published a translation with commentary of the
Psalms under the title: "Les psaumes traduits sur l'hébreu avec des notes" (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
Dom 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
Dom 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: "Glossarium ad scriptores mediæ et infimæ latinitatis, editio locupletior operâ et studio monachorum O.S.B." Dantine's labours greatly increased the value of this work, which is not only of the importance for the knowledge of Latin, but is also a source for the study of law and morals in the Middle Ages.
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dantine, Maurus
1688 births
1746 deaths
Roman Catholic priests of the Austrian Netherlands
Austrian Netherlands historians
Belgian Benedictines
Congregation of Saint-Maur