LAURENT BERAUD. — French Jesuit, born at Lyon on 5 March 1702, entered the novitiate in 1717. He distinguished himself in the teaching of mathematics, especially at Lyon, where he was also director of the observatory of the College of the Trinity and custodian of its collections of medals. He left France in 1762, returned after the suppression of the Society, and died at Lyon on 28 June 1777.
He published in various collections (Mémoires de Trévoux, etc.) good observations or astronomical dissertations; another on the cause of electricity was printed by the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg in 1755 and reprinted in Italy two years later; several others remained unpublished.
BIBL.: Sommervogel, I, cols. 1318-22. Edmondo Lamalie