The 18th century continues the traditions of the 17th. The Benedictines still for some time hold the first place. Dom Edmond Martene visited numerous archives (which were then closed) in France and neighbouring countries, and drew from them the material for two important collections: _Thesaurus novus anecdotorum_ (9 vols., 1717, in collaboration with Dom Ursin Durand) and _Veterum scriptorum collectio_ (9 vols., 1724-1733). Dom Bernard de Montfaucon also travelled in search of illustrated records of antiquity; private collections, among others the celebrated collection of Gaignieres (now in the Bibliotheque Nationale), provided him with the illustrations which he published in his _Monuments de la monarchie francoise_ (5 vols., 1729-1733). The text is in two languages, Latin and French. Dom Martin Bouquet took up the work begun by the two Duchesnes, and in 1738 published vol. i. of the Historians of France (_Rerum Gallicarum et Francicarum scriptores_), an enormous collection which was intended to include all the sources of the history of France, grouped under centuries and reigns. He produced the first eight volumes himself; his work was continued by several collaborators, the most active of whom was Dom Michel J. Brial, and already comprised thirteen volumes when it was interrupted by the Revolution. In 1733, Antoine Rivet de La Grange produced vol. i. of the _Histoire litteraire de la France_, which in 1789 numbered twelve volumes. While Dom C. Francois Toustaint and Dom Rene Prosper Tassin published a _Nouveau Traite de diplomatique_ (6 vols., 1750-1765), others were undertaking the _Art de verifier les dates_ (1750; new and much enlarged edition in 1770). Still others, with more or less success, attempted histories of the provinces.