Peiresc, Nicolas‐Claude Fabri de
Born Belgentier, (Var), France, 1 December 1580
Died Aix‐en‐Provence, (Bouches‐du‐Rhône), France, 24 June 1637
In addition to fostering scientific correspondence, Nicolas Peiresc discovered the Orion nebula and tracked the satellites of Jupiter in order to solve the longitude problem. He was the son of Réginald Fabri, descendant of a Pisan family, and Margareta Bomparia, both of whom represented notable Provencal lineages and connections. After Peiresc attended Jesuit schools in Aix and Avignon, his father and uncle sent him on an extended trip to Italy (1599–1602) to prepare him further for the family post in the parliament of Provence. During his first year in Italy, Peiresc studied in Padua, where he met Galileo Galilei before settling in Montpellier to study law. After finishing his legal studies there, Peiresc attained a doctorate degree in civil law in Aix (1604). When his uncle died on 24 June 1607, leaving open the family parlementposition, Peiresc immediately filled the...
Selected References
- Baumgartner, Frederic J. (1991). “The Origins of the Provençal School of Astronomy. ” Physis, n.s., 28: 291–304.MATHGoogle Scholar
- Chapin, Seymour L. (1957). “The Astronomical Activities of Nicolaus Claude Fabri de Peiresc.” Isis 48 (1957): 13–29.MATHGoogle Scholar
- Gassendi, Pierre (1657). The Mirrour of True Nobility and Gentility: Being the Life of the Renowned Nicolaus Claudius Fabricius, Lord of Pieresk, Senator of the Parliament at Aix, translated by W. Rand. London: Printed by J. Streater for Humphrey Moseley. (Still the standard for biographical information on Peiresc.)Google Scholar
- ——— (1992). Gassendi‐Peiresc correspondance. Le Chaffaut: Terradou.Google Scholar
- Humbert, Pierre (1933). Un amateur: Peiresc, 1580–1637. Paris, Desclée de Brouwer.Google Scholar
- Miller, Peter N. (2000). Peiresc's Europe: Learning and Virtue in the Seventeenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
- Pearl, Jonathan L. (1978). “Peiresc and the Search for Criteria of Scientific Knowledge in the Early 17th Century.” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History 6: 110–119.Google Scholar
- ——— (1984). “The Role of Personal Correspondence in the Exchange of Scientific Information in Early Modern France.” Renaissance and Reformation 20: 106–113.Google Scholar
- Sarasohn, Lisa T. (1993). “Nicolas‐Claude Fabri de Peiresc and the Patronage of the New Science in the Seventeenth Century.” Isis 84: 70–90.Google Scholar
- Tolbert, Jane T. (1999). “Fabri de Peiresc's Quest for a Method to Calculate Terrestrial Longitude.” Historian: A Journal of History 61: 801–819. (On Peiresc's large‐scale project of longitudinal calculations.)Google Scholar