PETRER, an ingenious and learned French Jesuit, born in the diocese of Clermont, in the year 1581. He was one of the most perfect imitators of Virgil in Latin poetry, and his poems are of the same species with those of the Mantuan bards. Thus he wrote Eclogues, Georgics, or four books on the culture of the soul and the understanding; together with a heroic poem, entitled Constantine, or Idolatry Overthrown. He showed also great critical ability in a Latin Dissertation on Epic Poetry. He died in 1661.