Salian, James

, a learned Jesuit of Avignon, where he was born in 1557, entered into that society in 1578, and became a noted tutor. He was afterwards made rector of the college of Besancon, and died at Paris Jan. 23, 1640, in the eighty-third year of his age. He wrote some pious tracts, but is principally known for his “Annals of the Old Testament,” published in 1618 24, b vols. folio. As this work appeared too voluminous for general use, M. de Sponde, bishop of Pamiers, requested leave to publish an abridgment in the manner of his abridgment of Baronius; but Salian, conscious how much originals suffer by abridgments, refused this request with much politeness; and when induced at last to make an abridgment himself, contrived to do it in such a manner as to render the original almost indispensable to his readers. ²