CHEVREAU, URBAN, a learned writer, born at Loudun in 1613. He distinguished himself in his youth by his knowledge of the belles-lettres, and became secretary of state to Queen Christina of Sweden. Several German princes invited him to their courts; and Charles Louis, the elector palatine, retained him under the title of counsellor. After the death of that prince he returned to France, and became preceptor to the Duke of Maine. At length retiring to Loudun, he died there in 1701, aged eighty-eight. He was the author of a variety of works, amongst which may be mentioned, 1. Considerations Portatives, and De la Tranquillité d'Esprit, Paris, 1642, 8vo; 2. L'Ecole du Sage, or Le Caractère des Vertus et des Vices, Paris, 1664, 12mo; 3. Lettres, Paris, 1642, 8vo; 4. Scanderbeg, 1644, 2 vols. 8vo; 5. Hermiogène, a romance in two parts, 1648, 8vo; 6. Tableau de la Fortune, Paris, 1651, 4to; 7. Poésies, 1656, 8vo; 8. Histoire du Monde,
Paris, 1686, 2 vols. 4to. Chevreau has been accused of having taken his history without acknowledgment from the Theatrum Universum of Christian Mathias; but the charge has not been substantiated.