BAILLET, ADRIEN (5649-1706), French scholar and critic, was born on June 13 1649, at the village of Neuville near Beauvais, in Picardy, and died in Paris on Jan. 21 1706. He became in 168o librarian to M. de Lamoignon, advocate-general to the parlement of Paris, of whose library he made a catalogue raisonne (35 vols.), all written with his own hand. The remainder of his life was spent in incessant, unremitting labour; he is said to have allowed himself only five hours a day for rest. Of his numerous works the most famous is Jugemens des savans sur les principaux ouvrages des auteurs (1685-86). At the time of his death he was engaged on a Dictionnaire universelle ecclesiastique. The praise bestowed on the Jansenists in the Jugemens des savans brought down on Baillet the hatred of the Jesuits, and his Vie des saints (I 7oi ), in which he brought his critical mind to bear on the question of miracles, caused some scandal. His Vie de Descartes is a mine of information on the philosopher and his work, derived from numerous unimpeachable authorities.
See the edition by M. la Monnoye of the Jugemens des savans (Amsterdam, 1725), which contains the Anti-Baillet of Gilles Ménage and an Abrege de la vie de M. Baillet.