Guiran, Galliard

, a French antiquary, and counsellor of the presidial court of Nismes, was born in that city in 1600, of protestant parents, and early acquired a reputation for learning and probity. The court frequently employed him in affairs of importance, in all which he acquitted himself with ability. Henry Frederic of Nassau, prince of Orange, having appointed him counsellor of the parliament of that city, Louis XIV. permitted him to retain with it his office in the presidial of Nismes, one of the most considerable of the kind in that kingdom. He died at Nismes, in 1680. His antiquarian pursuits produced a dissertation entitled, 1. “Explicatio duorum vetustorum numismatum Nemausensium ex sere,” 1655, 4to, twice reprinted, and inserted in Sallengre’s “Thesaurus.” 2. “Recherches historiques et chronologiques, concernant l'etablissement et la suite de seuechaux de Beaucaire et de Nimes,” 1660, 4to. He left also in manuscript three folio volumes of the antiquities of Nismes, with drawings, which were sold by his heirs to baron HohendorfF, and are said to be now in the imperial library at Vienna. Guiran had a fine collection of medals and other antiques, which were dispersed after his death. ²