The Life of Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc

ABOUT THE LIFE OF PEIRESC

...and so it could flow more abundantly, Claude built a quite remarkable bridge, or aqueduct, in the meantime.

1580.

Peiresc was therefore born in the aforementioned castle of Belgentier original: "Belgenferij caſtro", as his parents had turned aside there because of a memorable plague. This plague began to spread through the whole of Provence, but especially in Aix-en-Provence original: "Aquis-Sextiis", in the year of salvation 1580. His birth fell on the first day of December of that year, at almost the seventh hour after noon. I mention this only so that I do not seem to have been insufficiently diligent regarding the circumstances of time; I do not do so to provide an opportunity for fortune-tellers to guess, whereby they might now, after the man’s death, weave his fate more certainly than they did before. For it is remarkable to say how many lies the astrologers told, whether you look at the years they claimed he would live, but did not; or the wife and children and other things they said he would have, but which he lacked; or many other things which he actually did achieve. The author, Pierre Gassendi, was a famous scientist and skeptic who frequently criticized astrology for its lack of empirical accuracy.

Furthermore, since his parents had already spent several years without children, as soon as his mother sensed she was pregnant, she designated a godfather lustralem sponsorem: a sponsor for the purification rite of baptism for the child. This was not some great nobleman, but, such was her piety, the first poor man she should happen to meet.

Thus, the first poor man who was encountered was summoned. While the child was being initiated and washed A reference to the sacrament of baptism, the man stood as surety for him, and named him Claude after his paternal uncle.

But when the uncle arrived, he wished the boy to bear the grandfather’s name as well. Therefore, with the first name of Nicolas being added, he was called Nicolas-Claude.

Although not only when he was a boy was he mostly called Nicolas, without the addition of Claude, but also later in his advanced age, as when he is referred to by authors as Nicolas Fabri original: "Nicolaus Faber", or