ABSTRACT
Nicolas Fabri de Peiresc was, in his lifetime, one of Europe's most celebrated scholars. But if Peiresc's interest in Ethiopia began in Provence, it was focused on Rome. The narrative of Peiresc's maneuvering in these turbid waters is in itself an impressive demonstration that a learned life in the seventeenth century could require skills quite removed from those associated with erudition or erudites. Peiresc the magistrate, Peiresc the humanist secretary, and Peiresc the friend and collaborator of merchants and sea captains – all these dimensions came into play when trying to persuade the Cardinal and through him manage the missionary agenda of the Congregation. Peiresc's interest in Ethiopia grew directly out of his sense of the inter-relationship between the languages of the Near East. Peiresc would not end without again reminding Cardinal Barberini of the enmity of the secretary of the Congregation towards Father Gilles de Loches.
