Poix, Louis De

Poix, Louis De a French monastic, was born Oct. 18, 1714, at Croixrault (diocese of Amiens). He devoted himself for some years to the study of the Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac languages, and conceived the design of a Polyglot Bible, to the redaction of which several of his confraternity (the Capuchin monks) promised to lend a hand. In 1744 the abbé Villefroy, professor at the College of France, took the direction of this enterprise; but the Bible impatiently expected by the learned world, and in regard to which Benedict XIV addressed a brief of felicitation to Louis de Poix, April 9, 1755, was not published, owing to divers contrarieties which at that time befell the Capuchins. In 1768 Poix wrote A Memoir, in which he advocated the foundation of an institution which, without being a burden to the State, would be of invaluable service to the Church, useful to the learned and men of letters, and honorable to the nation. He proposed the name of "Societe Royal des Etudes Orientales," and on the plan suggested by him was founded, April 1, 1822, the "Socieit Asiatique." Louis de Poix died at Paris in 1782. He published, with the collaboration of several other Capuchins, the following works: Prieres que Nerses, Patriartche des Armeniens, fit a la Gloire de Dieu, pour toute Ame fidele a Jesus Christ (1770): — Principes discutes pour-faciliter l'Intelligence des Livres prophetiques (Par. 1755-64, 16 vols. 12mo), the fruit of twenty years' labor: — Nouvelle Version des Psaumes (ibid. 1762, 2 vols. 12mo): — a Translation of Ecclesiastes (1771, 12mo): — Propheties de Jeenmie (ibid. 1780, 6 vols. 12mo): Propheties de Baruch (ibid. 1788, 12mo): — Essai sur le Livre de Job (ibid. 1768, 2 vols. 12mo): — Taaite de let Paix inteirieure (1764, 1768, 12mo): — Traite de la Joie (1768, 12mo). He left in manuscript a Dictionaire Armenien, Latin, Italien, et Francais. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé, 40, 585.