(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 afterwards 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 1609, 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; Jugesmens de 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.