PIERRE GASSENDI 91 



Persian, with a violet-coloured flower, nor the Arabian with a full 

 flower : of the Orenge-Trees, with a red and particoloured flower ; 

 of the Medlar and soure Cherry without stones ; Adam's Fig-Tree, 

 whose fruit Peireskius conceived to be one of those which the 

 spies brought back, that went to view the Land of Canaan ; the 

 rare Vines which he had from Tunis, Smyrna, Sidon, Damascus, 

 Nova Francia, and other places. Least of all shall I stand to 

 speak of the care he took in ordering his Knots, and planting 

 his trees in such order, as to afford even walks every way between 

 them; in bringing the water every where into his Gardens; in 

 providing that the tenderer sort of Plants might receive no 

 dammage by the Winters cold, in sending for the most skilful 

 Florists, to furnish himself with all variety of Flowers : in a 

 word, omitting nothing that might beautifie and adorn his 

 Grounds. The Mirrour of True Nobility and Gentility being 

 the Life of The Renowned Nicolaus Claudius Fabricius Lord of 

 Peiresk, Senator of the Parliament at Aix. Englished by W. 

 Rand, Doctor of Phy sick. London, I657. 1 



1 Nicolas de Peiresc, born in Province in 1580, was one of the greatest patrons 

 of letters. The friend of De Thou and Isaac Casaubon, he was called by Bayle 

 " Le Prociiretir G&ntral de la Littgrature" In i6o$he came to England in the 

 suite of La Boderie, the French Ambassador, and visited Oxford, where he 

 became intimate with Selden, Camden, Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Henry 

 Saville. Scaliger, Holstensius and Saumaise were aided by him with presents 

 of books, and at his instigation Grotius wrote his great work " De Jure Belli et 

 Pads." 



' ' He kept up a noble traffic with all travellers, supplying them with philo- 

 sophical instruments and recent inventions . . . it was the curiosity of Peiresc 

 which first embellished his own garden, and thence the gardens of Europe with 

 a rich variety of exotic flowers and fruits . . . The correspondence of Peiresc 

 branched out to the farthest bounds of Ethiopia, connected both Americas, and 

 had touched the newly discovered extremities of the Universe." I. Disraeli. 



He died in the arms of his biographer, Pierre Gassendi, on the 2$th June 



1637- 



Isaac Disraeli thus speaks of this Biography: "A moving picture of the 

 literary life of a man of letters, who was no author, would have been lost to us, 

 had not Peiresc found in Gassendi a twin spirit." When are we to have 

 a reprint of this Life "of that incomparable Virtuoso" as Evelyn called Peiresc ? 



