Fesch, Sebastian

, an able antiquary, doctor and lawprofessor at Basil, and afterwards secretary of that city, was born July 6, 1647. His regular studies were philosophy and law, to which he joined a knowledge of Greek and Roman antiquities, induced at first by a tine museum | which his father had, and which he afterwards greatly enriched. In 1667 he went to Grenoble and Lyons, where be contracted an acquaintance with Spoil; and after visiting some other parts of France, arrived in England, and formed an intimacy with many of its learned men, particularly Dr. Thomas Gale, who was then employed on his edition of Jamhlicus; and Fesch supplied him with some useful observations from an ancient manuscript in his library, an obligation which Gale has politely acknowledged. After his return to Basil, in 1672, he supported some theses “De Insignibus,” in which he displayed much learning, and which were reprinted in German in the form of a treatise. In 1678 he set out on a tour in search of antiquary lore, to Austria, Carinthia, and Italy, making some stay at Padua with his friend Charles Patin, who was then professor of medicine. He was unanimously admitted a member of the society of the Ricovrati, and pronounced on that occasion a panegyric on the republic of Venice, in Greek and Latin verse, before the principal personages of the city of Padua, and it was afterwards printed. At Rome he visited every object of curiosity, and made considerable additions to his collection of Greek and other rare medals. Having examined the very rare piece of Pylaemon Euergetes, king of Paphlagonia, he wrote a dissertation on it, which Gronovius reprinted in his Greek Antiquities. On his return home he took the degree of doctor in law, and was soon after chosen syndic of the city of Basil, and secretary, and regent of the schools. He died May 27, 1712. Besides the works above-mentioned, he published some dissertations on subjects of law and philology, and a discourse on the death of Brandmuller, the learned lawyer. ¹