(Adrian), a very learned French writer and critic, born in 1649, at the village of Neuville near Beauvais in Picardy. His parents were too poor to give him a proper education, which however he obtained by the favour of the bishop of Beauvais, who afterward presented him with a small vicarage. In 1680, he was appointed librarian to M. de Lamoignon, advocate general to the parliament of Paris; of whose library he made a copious index in 35 vols folio, all written with his own hand. He died in 1706, after writing many works, the principal of which are, A History of Holland from 1629, to the peace of Nimeguen in 1679, 4 vols 12mo; Lives of the Saints, 3 vols folio, which he professed to have purged from fables; Fragments des Savants, which he extended to 9 vols 12mo; and The Life of Des Cartes, 2 vols 4to, which he abridged, and reduced to 1 vol. 12mo.

a town of France, in the earldom of Flanders, formerly very strong, but now without any fortifications. It has been several times burnt by accident, and contains now only about 500 houses. E. Long. 2. 55. N. Lat. 40. 35.