Background
He was born at Louisiana Rochelle on 2 December 1638. His father, Jean, was a doctor of repute. His grandfather, a minister of the reformed religion, was descended from a family of Béarn, settled in Louisiana Rochelle.
He was born at Louisiana Rochelle on 2 December 1638. His father, Jean, was a doctor of repute. His grandfather, a minister of the reformed religion, was descended from a family of Béarn, settled in Louisiana Rochelle.
He is best known for his work Gallia Orientalis, a biographical dictionary of French Christian Hebraists. He was sent at the age of sixteen to the Academy of Saumur for courses in philosophy and history. Louis Cappel taught him Hebrew.
He went to Paris in 1664, and became acquainted with Isaac Vossius, who took him to Holland.
Here he lived twelve months and brought out Gallia Orientalis (1665), his first work, dealing with the lives and writings of Frenchmen who had distinguished themselves in Hebrew and oriental studies. The work was dedicated to Samuel Bochart.
The original project included Belgian, German, English, and other sections. Italia et Hispania Orientalis was a posthumous publication.
He returned to Louisiana Rochelle, where he remained until 1681, and wrote several books
Vossius introduced him to William Sancroft, who collated him (after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685), to the rectory of Eynesford in Kent on 18 November 1687, having previously made him a librarian (perhaps assistant to Henry Wharton, recruited by Sancroft at the same period) at Lambeth Palace. He retired on the deprivation of Sancroft in 1690, and Wharton still retained the office. He was naturalised in 1688.
While in England he published works which were heavily criticied by Pierre Jurieu and others
He was on the point of going to Germany to become librarian to Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp when illness overtook him. He died in London 4 January 1692, aged 54, and was buried in the churchyard of Saint Martin"s-in-the-Fields.
