Menard, Claude

, a French magistrate and antiquary, was one of several authors of the name of Menard who obtained considerable reputation in France. Claude, who was born in 1582, had a situation in the magistracy of Angers (lieutenant de la prevote), and was distinguished for his knowledge and virtue. Having had the misfortune to lose his wife towards the latter end of his career, he

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This work, which we have not been able to meet with, occurs in Brunet’s “Manuel du Libraire,” under the title of “Defensor pacis, sive Apologia pro Ludovico IV. imperatore Bavaro, tractatus de translatione imperii, ante trecentos prope annos scripta” Ex bibliopolio Comeliniano, 1599, 8vo. But this seems to be the same with the “Defensor pacis,” mentioned above, with the addition of the “apologia, pro, Ludovico.

| quitted the world, became an ecclesiastic, and led a very austere life. He was passionately attached to the study of antiquities, and rescued from oblivion several curious pieces. He died Jan. 20, 1652, at the age of seventytwo. He published, 1. “Joinville’s History of St. Louis,1617, 4to, with notes full of erudition and judgment. 2. “The two books of St. Austin against Julian,” which he discovered in the library at Angers. 3. “Researches concerning the body of St. James the greater,” who, as is pretended, was buried in the collegiate church of Angers. The credulity of this casts some shade upon his other works. It is also heavily written. 4. “History of Bertrand du Gueschiin,1618, 4to. The learning of this author was great, but his style was heavy and bad. 1