부산대학교 도서관

(b 1580; d 1637). French patron, savant, collector and lawyer. An indefatigable correspondent, he brought together and acted as an intermediary for intellectuals from across Europe such as Galileo Galilei, Giovanni Battista della Porta and Cassiano dal Pozzo in Italy and Francis Bacon, 1st Baron Verulam, Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, William Camden, Carolus Clusius (Charles de L’Ecluse; 1526–1609) and Erycius Putaneus (1574–1646) in England; Pierre Gassendi’s biography of Peiresc summarizes year by year Peiresc’s voluminous correspondence. However, despite some publication (see Fauvis de Saint-Vincens, Tamizey de Larroque), the greater portion of Peiresc’s correspondence remains unpublished. Two facets of Peiresc’s interests attract art-historical attention: his archaeological pursuits and his friendship with artists. Archaeological interests dominated his correspondence with Peter Paul Rubens, but politics and new inventions were also recorded in their weekly exchanges. Peiresc’s letters to the portrait painter Abraham de Vries (1590–1662), who held a roving commission to paint portraits for Peiresc’s portrait gallery of famous men, are more revealing about artistic matters. Peiresc patronized other artists, such as the engraver ...