Claude, the son of an advocate in parliament, was born at Paris in 1613; and was bred a physician, though he never practised but among his relations, friends, and the poor. He discovered early a particular taste for the sciences and fine arts; of which he acquired a consummate knowledge without the assistance of a master: he excelled in architecture, painting, sculpture, mathematics, physics, and all those arts that relate to designing and mechanics. The entrance into the Louvre, which was designed by him, is, according to the judgment of Voltaire, one of the most august monuments of architecture in the world. M. Colbert put him upon translating Vitruvius into French; which he performed, and published it in 1673, folio, with figures from his own drawings; which are said to have been more exactly finished than the plates themselves. When the academy of sciences was established, he was one of its first members, and was chiefly depended on for mechanics and natural philosophy. His works are, Memoires pour servir à l'Histoire naturelle des Animaux, folio, 1676, with figures; Essais de Physique, 4 vols. 12mo, 1688; Recueil des plus beaux machines de nouvelle invention, 4to, 1700, &c. He died in 1688.

Charles, the brother of Claude, was born at Paris in 1626, with as great a genius for arts, and a greater for letters, than his brother. Colbert chose him first clerk of the buildings, of which he was superintendent, and afterward made him comptroller general of the finances under him. He was one of the first members of the academy of the belles lettres and inscriptions, and was received into the French academy in 1671. His poem, La Peinture, printed in 1683, was universally admired: that entitled La fée de Louis le Grand, in which he exalted the modern authors above the ancient, was a prelude to a war with all the learned. After he had disengaged himself from this contest, he applied himself to draw up eulogies of several great men of the 17th century, with their portraits, of which he has collected 102. There are other esteemed works of Perrault.—Besides these there were two other brothers, Peter and Nicholas, who made themselves known in the literary world.