NICOLAS-CLAUDE-FABRI, Seigneur de, born in 1580 at Beaugensier in Provence, was descended from an ancient and noble family which had been originally established at Pisa in Italy. From Avignon, where he had spent five years at the Jesuits' college, he was in 1595 removed to Aix, and entered upon the study of philosophy. It was here, while in the eager pursuit of literature, that his attention was first directed to antiquarian studies by accidentally meeting with a medal of the Emperor Arcadius. On removing to the Jesuits' college at Tournon in 1596, for the study of cosmography, he enjoyed the valuable assistance of Petrus Rogerus, a skilful numismatist. Being recalled by his uncle in 1597, he returned to Aix, and there entered upon the study of the law, relieving the tedium by frequent visits to Bagarr, a most skilful antiquary, afterwards master of the jewels to Henri IV. He visited Italy in 1599, proceeded to Montpellier in 1602, and thence to Aix in 1603, to receive the senatorial dignity just vacated by his uncle.

In the year 1605 he visited Paris, whence he, in 1606, proceeded to England in company with the king's ambassador. He was very graciously received by King James I.; and having seen Oxford, and visited Camden, Sir Robert Cotton, Sir Henry Saville, and other learned men, he passed over to Holland. During his residence in that country he made the acquaintance of Joseph Scaliger at Leyden, and Hugo Grotius at the Hague. On his return to Aix, he was chosen a councillor of the Parliament of that city, where he remained till his death, which occurred in 1637. The death of the "Procureur Général de la Littérature," as Bayle calls him, was lamented wherever letters were esteemed, and eloquence celebrated his merits in half the languages of Europe. A collection of these panegyrics has since been made, under the title of Panglossia. While no work at all proportioned to the learning and ability of the author remains to us, he nevertheless left behind him a vast mass of incomplete manuscripts on all manner of subjects. A catalogue of these MSS., 700 in all, is preserved in the British Museum among the papers of Sir Hans Sloane. A considerable number of the incited letters of Peirese appeared in the Magasin Encyclopédique, and were afterwards published separately, Paris, 1815. We have an elegant Vita Nic. Claudii Fabriæ de Peirese, by his warm friend Gassendi, 4to, Paris, 1641; translated into English by W. Rand, 1657; and into French by Requier in 1770. The Eloge of Peirese by Lemonetey was crowned by the Academy of Marseilles in 1785.