Grive, John De La

, a French topographer and engraver, was born in 1689 at Sedan, and going to Paris, entered the congregation of the priests of St. Lazare, and was sent by them into Poland, to be professor of divinity at Cracow. In a short time, however, he returned, and afterwards quitted his congregation to devote himself entirely to mathematics and topography. He published the “Plan of Paris/' 1723, a very good work in itself, but the engraving was too imperfect at which the abbe de Grive was so vexed, that he broke the plates, and determined, in future, to engrave his works himself, which resolution he executed punctually. Being appointed geographer of Paris, he drew the course of the river Seine, from its source to its mouth. M. de la Grive assisted M. Cassini in determining the meridian of Paris, and undertook a very particular and circumstantial account of that capital, which work was far advanced at the time of his death, which happened April 1757. The first two drawings of this vast plan have been published by M. Hugnin, hi* pupil. The other most esteemed works of the abbe de la Grive are, his” Environs de Paris;“Jardins de Marly” “Terrier du Domaine du Roi aux Environs de Paris” Plan de Versailles,“&c. He also left” Le Manuel de Trigonometric Spherique," published in 1754. ²

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