ldest son of Francois Ambroise, is celebrated as the
publisher of the beautiful "Louvre" editions of Virgil, Horace and
Racine. The Racine, in three volumes folio, was pronounced in 1801 to be
"the most perfect typographical production of all ages." FIRMIN DIDOT
(1764-1836), his brother, second son of Francois Ambroise, sustained the
reputation of the family both as printer and type-founder. He revived
(if he did not invent--a distinction which in order of time belongs to
William Ged) the process of stereotyping, and coined its name, and he
first used the process in his edition of Callet's _Tables of Logarithms_
(1795), in which he secured an accuracy till then unattainable. He
published stereotyped editions of French, English and Italian classics
at a very low price. He was the author of two tragedies--_La Reine de
Portugal_ and _La Mort d'Annibal_; and he wrote metrical translations
from Virgil, Tyrtaeus and Theocritus. AMBROISE FIRMIN DIDOT (1790-1876)
was his eldest son. After receiving a classical education, he spent
three years in Greece and in the East; and on the retirement of his
father in 1827 he undertook, in conjunction with his brother Hyacinthe,
the direction of the publishing business. Their greatest undertaking was
a new edition of the _Thesaurus Graecae linguae_ of Henri Estienne,
under the editorial care of the brothers Dindorf and M. Hase (9 vols.,
1855-1859). Among the numerous important works published by the
brothers, the 200 volumes forming the _Bibliotheque des auteurs grecs_,
_Bibliotheque latine_, and _Bibliotheque francaise_ deserve special
mention. Ambroise Firmin Didot was the first to propose (1823) a
subscription in favour of the Greeks, then in insurrection against
Turkish tyranny. Besides a translation of Thucydides (1833), he wrote
the articles "Estienne" in the _Nouvelle Biographie generale_, and
"Typographie" in the _Ency. mod._, as well as _Observations sur
l'orthographie francaise_ (1867), &c. In 1875 he published a very
learned and elaborate monograph on Aldus Manutius. His collection of
MSS., the richest in France, was said to have been worth, at the time of
his death, not less than 2,000,000 francs.

DIDRON, ADOLPHE NAPOLEON (1806-1867), French archaeologist, was born at
Hautvillers, in the department of Marne, on the 13th of March 1806. At
first a student of law, he began in 1830, by the advice of Victor Hugo,
a study of the Christian archaeology of the middle ages. After v