PURPOSE: To prevent the erroneous luminescence of a nonselection section by adding at least one or more dummy linear grids on both outsides of a phosphor dot group in a fluorescent character display device having a double matrix structure connected with display section anodes in odd lines and even lines.

CONSTITUTION: An anode electrode 2 made of an aluminum thin film is formed on a glass substrate 1. A graphite layer 3 and a phosphor layer are formed on the anode 2. The phosphor layer is removed from a dummy anode 7. Grids 5 are suspended on the anode 2, and filaments 6 perpendicular to them are suspended. Dummy grids 8 are suspended on both sides of the dummy anode 7. Two grid voltage 4G, 5G are superposedly applied in sequence to odd line anodes P1A-P5A and even line anodes P1B-P5B in turn, and phosphors are illuminated by the thermoelectrons emitted from the filaments 6. The grid voltage 2G, 3G, (m-1)G, (m-2)g are kept at the same timing, thus no nonselection luminescence is generated.