Short answers, pulled from the story.
François Catrou (1659-1737) was a French historian, translator, and Jesuit priest born in Paris. He founded the Journal de Trévoux in 1701, authored a history of the Mughal empire, a controversial history of Protestant fanaticism, and a twenty-one-volume Roman History, and produced a translation of Virgil.
The Journal de Trévoux was a periodical founded by Catrou in 1701. He remained an active member of its staff for twelve years.
Catrou's Histoire generale de l'empire du Mogul, published in 1705, is a history of the Mughal empire drawn chiefly from the memoirs of Venetian traveller Niccolao Manucci. It was later translated into Italian and into English, with English editions appearing in London in 1826 and again in 1907.
Catrou's Roman History was published in twenty-one quarto volumes between 1725 and 1737. The geographical and critical notes were written by P. Rouillé, S.J., and an English translation by R. Bundy appeared in London between 1728 and 1737 in six folio volumes.
Yes. Edward Gibbon kept Catrou's Virgil as a constant companion during his early studies. In his autobiography Gibbon named Catrou alongside Servius as his preferred commentators on Virgil.
French critics praised the Roman History for its deep research and solid reasoning but censured its pompous style. The work's appearance in English translation provoked even harsher attacks, though British historian Nathaniel Hooke drew freely from both Catrou's text and Rouillé's notes when writing his own Roman History.