French author, born in 1580, descended from an ancient and noble family, which had been originally established at Pisa in Italy. At ten years of age he was sent to Avignon, where he spent five years in the Jesuits’ college, studying what in Scotland and on the Continent is called humanity. From Avignon he was, in 1595, removed to Aix, and entered upon the study of philosophy. In the interim, he attended the proper masters for dancing, riding, and handling arms, in all which, though be performed the lessons regularly, it was with reluctance; for this being done only to please an uncle, whose heir he was to be, he never practised by himself, esteeming all the time lost which was not spent in the pursuits of literature. During this period, his father being presented with a medal of the Emperor Arcadius, which had been found at Belgenser, Peiresc begged the favour of it; and, charmed with deciphering the characters in the exergue, and reading the emperor’s name, he carried the medal, in a transport of joy, to his uncle, who for his encouragement gave him two more, together with some books upon the subject. This is the epoch of his application to antiquities, for which he became afterwards so famous. In 1596, he was sent to finish his course of philosophy under the Jesuits at Tournon, where he turned his attention particularly to cosmography, as being necessary to the understanding of history; abating, however, nothing of his application to antiquity, in which he was assisted by Petrus Rogerus, one of the professors, and a skilful medallist. Nor did he neglect the study of humanity in general, in which he was the master and instructor of a brother who lived with him. But to do all this he was obliged to sit up late at night; and as he was naturally of a feeble constitution, so much labour and attention increased the weakness of his stomach, formerly contracted, and for which he had used a kind of digestive powder. Being recalled by his uncle in 1597, he returned to Aix, and there entered upon the study of the law, which be prosecuted, however, so as to find leisure to visit and converse frequently with Bagarr, a most skilful antiquary, who was afterwards master of the jewels to Henry IV.
The following year he went again to Avignon, to carry on his course of law under one David, who being also well skilled in antiquities, was pleased to see Peiresc join this study to that of the law. But Ghibertus of Naples, auditor to Cardinal Aquaviva, fed his curiosity the most, in showing him some rarities, such as he had never seen before. Having now spent almost three years in Italy, he began to prepare for his departure, and in the end of 1602, having packed up all the rarities, gems, and other articles which he had procured, and despatched them to Marseilles, he left Padua, and, crossing the Alps of Geneva, proceeded to Lyons. From Lyons he went to Montpellier, to improve himself in law under Julius Parius. From Montpellier he despatched more rarities to his uncle, and arrived at Aix in November; but having brought Parius along with him, he obtained leave to return in a few days to Montpellier. He accompanied Parius back again, and under him continued pursuing his legal studies till the end of 1603, when he returned to Aix, at the earnest request of his uncle, who, having resigned to him his senatorial dignity, had ever since the beginning of the year laboured to get the king’s patent. The degree of doctor of laws was a necessary qualification for this dignity. Peiresc, therefore, having performed the usual exercise, took that degree, in January 1604, when the patent was given to the senate, and ordered to be recorded; yet Peiresc procured leave not to be presently entered into the list of senators. The bent of his inclination was not so much to business as to advancing arts and sciences, and assisting all the promoters of learning. For this purpose, he resolved to lead a single life; so that when his father had concluded a match for him with a respectable lady, he begged to be excused.
In the year 1605 he accompanied Varius, first president of the senate at Aix, who was very fond of him, to Paris, whence, having visited every thing curious, he, in 1606, crossed the Channel to England, in company with the king’s ambassador. He was very graciously received by King James I.; and having seen Oxford, and visited Camden, Sir Robert Cotton, Sir Henry Savile, and other learned men, he passed over to Holland. After visiting the several towns and universities, with the literati in each, he passed through Antwerp to Brussels, and thence returned to Paris to witness the ceremony of the Dauphin’s baptism, which was solemnized on the 24th of August 1606.
In 1629 he began to be much tormented with strangury and hæmmorrhoids; and in 1631, having completed the marriage of his nephew Claudius with Margaret Alresia, a noblewoman of the county of Avignon, he bestowed upon him the barony of Rians, together with a grant of his senatorial dignity, only reserving the function to himself for three years. But the parliament not waiting for his surrender of it, he resented that affront so heinously, that in 1632 he procured letters patent from the king to be restored to the exercise of his office during five years longer, which happened to be till the time of his death; for, being seized, in June 1637, with a fever, which brought on a stoppage of urine, this put an end to his life, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.
The works which he published are, 1. Historia provinciæ Galliæ Narbonensis; 2. Nobilium ejusdem provinciæ Familiarum Origines, et separatim Fabriciæ; 3. Commentarii rerum omnium memoria dignarum sua ætate gestarum; 4. Liber de ludicris Naturæ operibus; 5. Mathematica et astronomica varia; 6. Observationes mathematicæ; 7. Epistolæ ad S. P. Urbanum VIII. Cardinales Barberinos, &c.; 8. Authores antiqui Græci et Latini de ponderibus et mensuris; 9. Elogia et Epitaphia; 10. Inscriptiones antiquæ et novæ; 11. Genealogia domus Austriacæ; 12. Catalogus librorum Bibliothecæ regiæ; 13. Poemata varia; 14. Nummi Gallici, Saxonici, Britannici, &c.; 15. Linguæ orientales, Hebræa, Samaritana, Arabica, Egyptiaca, et Indices librorum harum linguarum; 16. Observationes in varios auctores.
