The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

264. CLAUDE FABRI DE PEIRESC. _Patron of Science._

[Born at Beaugensier, in France, 1580. Died 1637. Aged 57.] A benefactor of his kind, being one of the most notable promoters and patrons of science and literature. For a long time resident on his native soil, then in Italy, England, and Holland, in all which countries he collected with the greatest avidity, and at infinite pains, rare memorials of antiquity. He encouraged and assisted men of genius wherever he met them, and corresponded with the learned of his time in Europe. We are indebted to him for the preservation of several ancient manuscripts, and for our acquaintance with fragments of learning, until his time unrecovered. He was himself an antiquary, a philologist, and an astronomer. [From a marble in the Louvre, copied by Claude Francin from a bust by Caffieri. Francin died in 1773. An original work of his from the life, is the bust of D’Alembert, at Versailles. The original of our bust, some years ago, had the nose broken off. It has not been very skilfully restored.]