[Born at Beaugensier, in France, 1580. Died 1637. Aged 57.]
A benefactor of his kind, being one of the most notable promoters and
patrons of science and literature. For a long time resident on his
native soil, then in Italy, England, and Holland, in all which countries
he collected with the greatest avidity, and at infinite pains, rare
memorials of antiquity. He encouraged and assisted men of genius
wherever he met them, and corresponded with the learned of his time in
Europe. We are indebted to him for the preservation of several ancient
manuscripts, and for our acquaintance with fragments of learning, until
his time unrecovered. He was himself an antiquary, a philologist, and an
astronomer.
[From a marble in the Louvre, copied by Claude Francin from a bust by
Caffieri. Francin died in 1773. An original work of his from the life,
is the bust of D’Alembert, at Versailles. The original of our bust,
some years ago, had the nose broken off. It has not been very
skilfully restored.]