Species Pereskia grandiflora

For Nicholas-Claude Fabri (Fabry) de Peiresc (1580–1637), French antiquarian, numismatist, patron of botany, naturalist, historian and archaeologist. He was regarded as one of Europe’s leading scholars and was in contact with many of the leading figures of his day and a noted politician in his home region, Provence. His interests included astronomy; he discovered the Orion Nebula, studied the moons of Jupiter and began a map of the surface of the moon. Despite his network of scholarly friends, Peiresc published nothing in his lifetime, although there are many finished essays and countless drafts among his vast collection of papers, including over 10 000 letters, which have survived. His Abridged History of Provence was published posthumously.