Baume, James Francis De La

, canon of the collegiate church of St. Agricola d‘ Avignon, was born at Carpentras in the Comtat Venaissin, in 1705. His passion lor the belles-lettres attracted him to Paris, and after having made some stay there, he published a pamphlet entitled “Eloge de la Paix,” dedicated to the academic Franchise; it is in the form of a discourse, an ode, and an epopea, but has little merit in any of these styles. This did not, however, prevent him from meditating a work of greater length. He carried the idea of his design with him into his province, and there he completed it. “The Christiade, or Paradise regained,” which is here meant, occasioned its author a second journey to Paris, where his poem was printed, in 1753, 6 vols. 12mo. The work, well executed as to the typographical part, is written in a pompous, affected, and often ridiculous style, and the sacred subject was so much burlesqued, that it was condemned by the parliament of Paris, and the author fined. He died at Paris in 1757. He wrote besides several small pieces, as the “Saturnales Francoises,” 1736, 2 vols. 12mo, and he Worked for upwards of ten years on the “Courier d’Avignon.” He was a man of a warm imagination, but void both of taste and judgment. ²

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