Career
His first work was a paraphrase of the Book of Job in Latin hexameters (1637), resumed and accompanied by a commentary in 1679. In this last writing he defined accurately the style of the Portuguese Royal writers before the Provinciales:, monotonous and burdened with complicated periods. He wrote a sharp and learned criticism of the "Epigrammatum delectus" of Portuguese-Royal (1659), "De epigrammate liber et epigrammatum libri tres" (1669), showing knowledge of Catullus, Martial, and the Greek anthology.
Guillaume de Lamoignon, Rapin"s protector, had Vavasseur"s pamphlet suppressed.
"Pere Vavasseur was a learned man, one of those critical and severe minds which find something to bite even in good works, and which let nothing pass" (Sainte-Beuve, "Portuguese-Royal", III, 528). His other works include sermons, a commentary on Osee, and a dissertation on the beauty of Christ.
All his writings were collected by the theologian Jean Leclerc (Amsterdam, 1709). His Latin writings had appeared previously in Paris (1683).
