Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Peirescius" redirects here. For the crater on the Moon, see Peirescius (crater).
Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc by Louis Finson

Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1 December 1580 – 24 June 1637), often known simply as Peiresc, or by the Latin form of his name, Peirescius, was a French

Mediterranean, and in North Africa
.

Early life

Peiresc's father was a higher magistrate and city surgeon in

Jesuit college at Tournon. At Toulon, he first became interested in astronomy. Studying law and becoming interested in archaeology, he travelled to Italy, Switzerland and France in 1599, and finally finished his legal studies in 1604 at the University of Montpellier. It was also in 1604 that he assumed the name Peiresc after a domain in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (now spelled Peyresq
) which he had inherited from his father, although he himself never visited it.

After receiving his degree, he travelled to Paris (in 1605–1606, with his patron Guillaume du Vair, president of the Parlement of Provence), London and Flanders before returning to Aix in 1607 to take over his uncle's position as conseiller in the Parlement of Provence under du Vair. He held this post until 1615.

Intellectual and collector

Terracotta bust of Peiresc by Jean-Jacques Caffieri in the Bibliothèque Mazarine

From 1615 until 1622, Peiresc again visited Paris with du Vair. He then returned to Provence to serve as senator of the sovereign court. He became a patron of science and art, studied fossils, and supported the astronomer Pierre Gassendi from 1634 to 1637. Virginio Cesarini proposed him for membership of the Accademia dei Lincei in 1621, but it is not certain whether he joined.[1]

Peiresc's position as a great intellectual at the time of the

Rubens
. His correspondence to Malherbe throws light on the personality of Malherbe's troubled son Marc-Antoine Malherbe.

Peiresc became one of the first admirers and supporters of Caravaggio in France. He first discovered Caravaggio's works in the

Contarelli chapel in Rome in 1600 when he was only 20 years old.[2] In his hometown, he gathered around him a sort of 'caravaggesque workshop of Southern France' with artists including Flemish artist Louis Finson, Martin Hermann Faber, Trophime Bigot and other painters.[3] He promoted the Caravaggesque style by arranging commissions for these artists. He was instrumental in obtaining a number of commissions for Finson, including for history paintings and portraits.[4] Finson also painted a portrait of de Peyresc. Peiresc was an avid art collector and relied on Finson's contacts in Italy to acquire two works of Caravaggio from the Pasqualini family of Rome.[3]

Peiresc's house in Aix-en-Provence was a veritable museum, and held a mix of antique sculptures, modern paintings, medals, books and gardens with exotic plants. He acquired the Byzantine

Caesar's invasion of Britain set out not from Calais but from St Omer), Egyptologist, botanist, zoologist (studying chameleons, crocodiles, the elephant and the alzaron, a sort of Nubian
gazelle with a bull-like head, now disappeared), physiologist, geographer (put on the project of linking Aix to Marseilles), and ecologist.

Detail of Peiresc's notes recording his first observation of the Orion Nebula on 26 November 1610

Astronomer

Peiresc was also an astronomer. In 1610 du Vair purchased a

Galileo, Pierre Gassendi and Tommaso Campanella
, two of whom he defended when they were arrested by the Inquisition.

Final years

Peiresc wrote an "abridged history of Provence", but died before editing it: it was only published (edited by Jacques Ferrier and Michel Feuillas) in 1982. With Gassendi's support, notably financially, he and the engraver Claude Mellan began to produce a map of the Moon's surface, but again Peiresc died before completing it.

Peiresc died on 24 June 1637 in Aix-en-Provence.

Works

Peiresc's works include:

  • Histoire abrégée de Provence
  • Lettres à Malherbe (1606–1628)
  • Traitez des droits et des libertés de l'Eglise gallicane (1639)
  • Vita Peireskii (1641)
  • Mémoires
  • Bulletin Rubens
  • Notes inédites de Peiresc sur quelques points d'histoire naturelle
  • Correspondance de Peiresc et Aleandro (1616-1618)
Bust of Peiresc in Aix-en-Provence

Legacy

A bronze bust of Peiresc stands on the square of the university in Aix-en-Provence, facing the cathedral of Saint Sauveur. His home near the palais de Justice was demolished to build the present Palais, and has completely disappeared.

The village museum in Peyresq near Digne-les-Bains is wholly given over to his work.

Peiresc was honored in 1935 by the naming of the lunar

19226 Peiresc
.

See also

  • List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics

References

  1. ^ http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/ItalianAcademies/PersonFullDisplay.aspx?RecordId=022-000005398&searchAssoc=Assoc[permanent dead link] accessed 9/7/2017
  2. ^ Dossier de Presse, Les caravages de Peiresc, Conférence de Presse Organisée par la mairie de Cavaillon et l’association des amis de l’Hôtel d’Agar (reconnue d’intérêt général). Cavaillon salle du conseil le 21 Mars 2019 (in French)
  3. ^ a b Olivier Morand, Le Finson de Toulouse, 2019
  4. ^ Paul Smeets (editor), Louis Finson, The four elements: The four elements Responsibility; R. Smeets, c. 2007
  5. ^ "Satellites of Jupiter". The Galileo Project. Retrieved 2007-11-24.

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nicolas-Claude_Fabri_de_Peiresc&oldid=1198960568"