482 P E I R E S C. 
there, and in cultivating the friendffiip of Galileo, by 
whom he was much beloved. This friendffiip led him to 
carry his refearches into aftronomy and natural philofo- 
phy ; and he was prefent when Fabricius ab Aquapen- 
dente, out of a parcel of eggs upon which a hen was fit¬ 
ting, took one every day, to obferve the gradual forma¬ 
tion of the chick from firlt to laft. From this time it was 
generally acknowledged, that he had taken the helm of 
learning into his hand, and began to guide the common¬ 
wealth of letters. « 
Having now fpentalmoft three years in Italy, he began 
to prepare for his departure; and in the end of 1602, 
having packed up all the rarities, gems, &c. which he had 
procured, and put them into the road to Marfeilles, he 
left Padua, and, eroding the Alps to Geneva, went to 
Lyons ; where he made a liandfome prefent to his gover¬ 
nor, who took the route of Paris. From Lyons he went 
to Montpelier, to improve himfelf in the law under Ju¬ 
lius Parius. From Montpelier he difpatched more rari¬ 
ties to his uncle; who fending for him home, lie arrived 
at Aix in November; but, bringing Parius along with 
him, he obtained leave to return to Montpelier in a few 
days. He waited upon Parius back again, under whom 
he continued purfuing hislaw-ftudies till the end of 1603, 
when he returned to Aix at the earned: requeft of his 
uncle, who, having refignedto him his fenatorial dignity, 
bad ever fince the beginning of the year laboured to get 
the king’s patent. The degree of doftor of law was a 
neceffary qualification for that dignity. Peirefc, there¬ 
fore, having kept the ufual exercife, took that degree 
Jan. 18, 1604, when the aforefiiid patent was given to the 
fenate, and ordered to be recorded ; yet Peirefc procured 
leave not to be prefently entered into the lift of fenators. 
The bent of his inclination was not fo much to bufinefs 
as to advance arts and fciences, and to aftift all the pro¬ 
moters of learning. For this purpofe, he refolved |to 
lead a fingle life; fo that, when his father had concluded 
a match for him with a refpedable lady, he begged to be 
excufed. 
In 1605, he accompanied G. Varius, firft prefident of 
the fenate at Aix, who was very fond of him, to Paris; 
whence, having vifited every thing curious, he crofted the 
water, in company with the king’s ambafiador, 1606, to 
England. Here he was very gracioufly received by king 
James I. and having feen Oxford, and vifited Camden, 
fir Robert Cotton, fir Henry Saville, and other learned 
men, he pafled over to Holland ; and, after vifiting the 
feveral towns and univerfities, with the literati in each, 
he went through Antwerp to Bruffels, and thence back 
to Paris, to fee the ceremony of the Dauphin’s baptifm ; 
which beingfolemnized Auguft 24, he returned home in 
September 1606, being expended for the ordering of the 
family affairs. 
Prefently after this, he purchafed the barony of Rians ; 
and at the folicitation of his uncle, having approved 
himfelf before that affembly, he was received a fenator on 
the ift of July, 1607. January 1608, he loft his uncle; 
and the following year, falling himfelf into a dangerous 
fever, recovered by eating mufk-melons. He was ordered 
by his phyfician to eat them before his meals without 
bread, and to drink a glafs of pure wine upon them. 
He continued this method all his life afterwards; and 
frequently experienced, that in the mufk-melon feafon 
he was never troubled with the gravel. In 1618, having 
procured a faithful copy of “ The A£fs of the Monaftery 
of Maren in Switzerland,” he publiflied a fecond edition 
of that work. As it was written in defence of the royal 
line of France againft Theodoric Piefpordius, who had 
attempted to prove the title of the Auftrian family to the 
French crown by right of fucceflion, he was, upon this 
publication, nominated the fame year, by Louis XIII. 
abbot of Sanfta Maria Aquiftrienfis. He ftayed in France 
till 1623; when, upon a meffage from his father, now 
grown old and fickly, he left Paris, where he had fpent 
ieven years and fome months. He arrived at Aix in Oc¬ 
* 
tober; and not long after prefented to the court a patent 
from the king, permitting him to continue in the fundion 
of his ancient dignity, and to exercife the office of a fe- 
cularorlay perfon, notwithftanding that, being an abbot, 
he had affumed the chara&er of a churchman. To this 
the court of parliament not affenting, decreed unani- 
moufly, that, being already admitted into the firft rank, 
he Ihould abide perpetually therein; not returning, as 
the cuftom of the court was, to the inferior auditory, 
■wherein trials are ufually had of criminal cafes'. In 1625, 
he buried his father, who had been long afflicted with the 
gout. In 1627, he prevailed with the archbiffiop of Aix 
to eftabliffi a poft thence to Lyons, and fo to Paris and all 
Europe ; by which the correfpondence conftantly held 
with the literati every-where was much facilitated. In 
1629, he began to be much tormented with the ftrangury 
and piles; and in 1631, having completed the marriage 
of his nephew Claudius with Margaret Alrefia, a noble¬ 
woman of the county of Avignon, lie bellowed upon him 
the barony of Rians, together with a grant of his fena¬ 
torial dignity, only referving the function to himfelf for 
three years. But,the parliament not waiting his furren- 
dry of it, he refented that affront fo heinoufly, that he 
procured, in 1635, letters patent (from the king) to be 
reftored, and to exercife the office for five years longer, 
which happened to be till his death : for being feized, 
June 1647, with a fever that brought on a ftoppage of 
urine, this put an end to his life on the 24th of that 
month, in his 57th year. 
Peirefc was of a middle fize, and of a thin habit: his 
forehead large, and his eyes grey; his cheeks tempered 
with red ; the hair of his head yellow', as alfo his beard, 
which he ufed to wear long; his whole countenance 
bearing the marks of uncommon and rare courtefy and 
affability. In his diet he affedled cleanlinefs, and in all 
things about him; but nothing fuperfluous or coftly. 
His clothes were fuitable to his dignity; yet he never 
wore filk. In like manner the reft of his houfe was 
adorned according to his condition, and very well fur- 
niffied ; but he negle&ed his own chamber. His bed was 
exceedingly plain ; and his table continually loaded and 
covered with papers, books, letters, and other things ; 
as alfo all the feats round about, and the greateft part of 
the floor. Thefe were fo many evidences of the turn of 
his mind ; in refpeft to which, the writer of his eloge 
compares him to the Roman Atticus ; and Bayle, con- 
fidering his univerfal correfpondence and general affiil- 
ance to all the literati in Europe, daflied it out luckily 
enough, when he called him “ the attorney-general of the 
literary republic.” The works which he publiflied are, 
1. Hiftoria provincis Gallis Narbonenfis. 2. Nobilium 
ejufdem provincis familiaruin Origines, et feparatim Fa- 
bricis. 3. Commentarii rerum omnium Memoria digna- 
rum fua state geftarum. 4. Liber de ludicris naturae 
operibus. 5. Mathematica et Aftronomica varia. 6. Ob- 
fervationes Mathematics. 7. Epiftols ad S. P. Urbanum 
VIII. cardinales Barberinos, &c. 7. Authores antiqui 
Grsci et Latini de Ponderibus et Menfuris. 8. Elogiaet 
Epitaphia. 9. Infcriptiones antiqus et novx, 10. Ge- 
nealogia Domus Auftriacs. 11. Catalogus Librorum 
Biblioth Reg. 12. Poemata varia. 13. Nummi Gallici, 
Soxonici, Britannici, See. 14. Lingus Orientales, He- 
brsa, Samaritans, Arabics, Egyptiaca, et Indices libro¬ 
rum harum linguarum. 15. Obfervationes in varios 
au&ores. It is remarkable, that, though Peirefc bought 
more books than any man of his time, yet his collection 
left was not large. The reafon was, that, as fall as he 
purchafed, he kept continually making prefents of them 
to fuch learned men as he knew they would be ufeful to. 
GaJJenfli's Life of Peirefc, in Englijh, Loud. 1657. 
PEI'SDORF, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Ko- 
nigingratz : fourteen miles north-eaft of Gitfchin. 
To PEISE, v. a. [pefer, Fr.j To poife ; to balance; 
to weigh. Obfoiete. See To Payse. — Not fpeaking 
words as they changeably fall from the mouth, but 
pevfng 
