or PITHOEUS, Peter, a Frenchman of great literary eminence, was descended from an ancient and noble family in Normandy, and born at Troyes in 1539. His taste for literature appeared very early, and his father cultivated it to the utmost. He first studied at Troyes, and was afterwards sent to Paris, where he became first the scholar, and then the friend, of Turennebus. Having finished his pursuits in languages and the belles lettres, he was removed to Bourges, and placed under Cujacius in order to study civil law. His father was well skilled in his profession, and has left no inconsiderable

(M) Patet (says he) medicinam esse memoriam eorum quae cuilibet morbo usus ostendit fuisset utilia. Nam notas non esse corporum intra venas fluentium aut consistentium naturas, adeoque sola observatione innescere quid cuique morbo conveniat postquam sapient eadem eadem morbo profuisse comperimus. De Div. Morb. inconsiderable specimen of his judgment in the advice he gave his son with regard to acquiring a knowledge of it; which was, not to spend his time and pains upon voluminous and barren commentators, but to confine his reading chiefly to original writers. He made so rapid a progress, that at seventeen he was able to speak extempore upon the most difficult questions; and his manner was not ashamed to own, that even himself had learned some things of him. Cujacius afterwards removed to Valence; and Pitheus followed him, and continued to profit by his lectures till the year 1560. He then returned to Paris, and frequented the bar of the parliament there, in order to join practical forms and usages to his theoretic knowledge.

In 1563, being then 24, he published *Adversaria Subseciva*, a work highly applauded by Turnebus, Lipsius, and other learned men; and which laid the foundation of that great and extensive fame he afterwards acquired. Soon after this, Henry III. advanced him to some considerable posts; in which, as well as at the bar, he acquitted himself most honourably. Pitheus being a Protestant, it was next to a miracle that he was not involved in the terrible massacre of St Bartholomew in 1572; for he was at Paris where it was committed, and in the same lodgings with several Huguenots, who were all killed. It seems indeed to have frightened him out of his religion; which having, according to the custom of converts, examined and found to be erroneous, he soon abandoned, and openly embraced the Catholic faith. He afterwards attended the duke of Montmorency into England; and on his return, from his great wisdom, good nature, and amiable manners, he became a kind of oracle to his countrymen, and even to foreigners, who consulted him on all important occasions; an instance of which we have in Ferdinand the grand duke of Tuscany, who not only consulted him, but even submitted to his determination in a point contrary to his interests. Henry III. and IV. were greatly obliged to him for combating the League in the most intrepid manner, and for many other services, in which he had recourse to his pen as well as to other means.

Pitheus died upon his birth-day in 1596, leaving behind him a wife whom he had married in 1579, and some children. Thuanus says he was the most excellent and accomplished man of the age in which he lived; and all the learned have agreed to speak well of him. He collected a very valuable library, containing a variety of rare manuscripts, as well as printed books; and he took many precautions to hinder its being dispersed after his death, but in vain. He published a great number of works upon law, history, and classical literature; and he gave several new and correct editions of ancient writers. He was the first who made the world acquainted with the Fables of Phaedrus; which, together with the name of their author, were utterly unknown and unheard of, till published from a manuscript of his.

**PITHECUS, SAMUEL**, a learned antiquary, was born at Zutphen, and was rector of the college of that city, and afterwards of St Jerome at Utrecht, where he died on the first of February 1717, aged 95. He wrote,

1. *Lexicon Antiquitatum Romanarum*, in two volumes folio; a work which is esteemed.

2. Editions of many Latin authors, with notes; and other works.