Fauchet, Claude

, a French antiquary of great fame, whose laborious researches into the earliest and most obscure parts of the history of his country, obtained him more celebrity than profit, was born at Paris in 1529. Having gone to Italy with cardinal de Tournon, his eminence often sent him with dispatches to the French court, which served to introduce him there with advantage, and procured him the place of first president of the Cour des Monnoies; and he is said by some to have obtained a pension from Henry IV. with the title of historiographer. He died in 1601, overwhelmed with debts. His works were collected in 4to at Paris, in 1610. The principal of them are, 1. His “Gaulish and French antiquities,” the first part of which treats chiefly of matters anterior to the arrival of the Franks, the second is extended to Hugh Capet. 2. “A treatise on the Liberties of the Gallican church.” 3. “On the origin of knights, armorial bearings, and heralds.” 4. | “Origin of dignities and magistracies in France.” All these contain much curious matter, not to be found elsewhere, but are written in a harsh, incorrect, and tedious style. Saxius mentions an edition of his works printed at Paris in 1710, 2 vols. 4to, which we conceive to be a mistake for 1610. It is said, that the pei’usal of his French Antiquities gave Louis XIII. an invincible distaste to reading. ¹