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, the first of a family of men of learning and fame, was born at Amiens, Aug. 24, 1511, and educated in the profession of medicine and surgery. In his eighteenth year he began practice as a surgeon, and acquired such reputation as to be frequently consulted by persons of the first rank; and queen Catherine of Navarre bestowed on him the title of her physician. His connections with the ct new heretics," as Moreri calls the Protestants, induced him to adopt their opinions. In 1532 he went to England, we are not told why, and practised there, for three years, after which he returned to Paris, and married; but having avowed his principles with boldness, and afforded assistance and protection to those of the reformed religion, he was thrown into prison in the reign of Francis I. and condemned to be burnt; but queen Margaret, who was sister to that prince, obtained his pardon and release, and appointed him her physician and surgeon in ordinary. Some time after, not thinking himself secure, even under her protection, he went to Antwerp and practised medicine, but even here the dread of the Spanish inquisition obliged him to retire to Germany, and at length he obtained an asylum at Basil, and for some time was corrector of the Froben press. He then resumed his profession, and was made assessor, and afterwards dean of the faculty. He died in 1582, leaving two sons, the subjects of the following articles.

, was born at Amiens Jan. 31, 1643, of very poor parents. Serroni, bishop of Mende, took him from the Dominican convent of the fauxbourg St. Germain, in Paris, provided for his education, and made him his secretary. This prelate also gave him the priory at Flore, obtained for him the abbey of St. Marcel, the coadjutorship of Glandeves, and lastly the bishopric of Pamiers. But not able to obtain his bulls from Rome, on account of his bad conduct, he had by way of compensation the abbey of Signy. He is the author of several dissertations on medals, on the history of France, on the title of Most Christian given to the kings of France, on the guard of these monarchs, on the daughters of the house of France given in marriage to heretical or pagan princes, on the nobility of the royal race, on the heredity of the grand fiefs, on the origin of ensigns armorial, on the hereditary dignities attached to titled estates, &c. all which were published in the Paris Mercuries for 1719, 1720, 1722, and 1723. His cabinet was rich in medals; the celebrated Vaillant published the most curious of them accompanied with explications. Abbe de Camps died at Paris in 1723, aged 81. He was learned and laborious, and his investigations have been of great use to the historians that have come after him.

, was born at Amiens, June 3, 1737, and was surnamed d'Aussy, because his father was a native of Auxy-le-Chateau, in the department of Pas-de-Calais. He received his education in the college of the Jesuits at Amiens at the age of eighteen entered into the society of his preceptors and, a few years afterxvards, had the honour of being elected to the rhetorical chair at Caen. At the age of twenty-six he was thrown on the world by the dissolution of the order, and was soon employed in the elaborate work of the French Glossary, projected by Lacurne de Sainte-Palaye, and in an examination of the very rich library of the marquis de Paulmy. In 1770 he was appointed secretary in the direction of the studies of the military school. He afterwards co-operated, under the marquis de Paulmy, and again with the count de Tressan, in the “Bibliotheque des Romans;” after which he became still deeper engaged in collecting, translating, extracting, and commenting upon the “Fabliaux,” or tales of the old French poets of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In 1782 he published, in three volumes, 8vo, his “Histoire de la Vie privee des Frangais;” and in 1788 his far more celebrated “Tour to Auvergne,” which province he visited the preceding year, at the entreaty of his Jesuit brother Peter Theodore Lewis Augustin, who was then prior of the abbey of Saint Andre, in the town of Clermont. This Tour he first published in one volume, ivo; but he afterwards enlarged and republished it in 1795, in three volumes of the same size. His contributions to the Institute were numerous, and, for the most part, possessed of merit. For some years before his death, he had conceived the plan of a complete history of French poetry, and had even begun to carry it into execution; and as he stood in need of all the treasures of the national library, he was fortunately nominated, in 1796, conservator of the French Mss. of this library and he now not only renewed his intention, but enlarged his scheme he included in it the history of the French tongue that of literature in all its extent, and all its various ramifications as well as that of science, of arts, and their utility in different applications a monument too vast for the life and power of an individual to be able to construct. He had, however, accomplished some part of his design, when, after a slight indisposition which caused no alarm, he died suddenly in 1801. He was upon the whole a retired and taciturn scholar. “His life,” says his biographer, “like that of most other men of letters, may be comprized in two lines What were his places of resort The libraries. Among whom did he live His books. What did he ever produce Books. What did he ever say? That which appears in his books.”

, a celebrated physician of France, was the son of Nicholas du Bois, a camblet-weaver, who had eleven sons and four daughters. He was born at Amiens in Picardy, in 1478, and went through a course of classical learning, under his elder brother Francis Sylvius; who was principal of the college of Tournay at Paris, and was a great promoter of letters in that age of barbarism. There he learned the Latin language, in much greater purity than it had been taught for a long time; and hence it was, that his writings are distinguished to such advantage by the elegance of the style. He became a very accomplished scholar in Latin and Greek, and had some little knowledge of the Hebrew; and applied himself also to mathematics and mechanics so successfully, as to invent machines, which deserved public notice. When the time was come for giving himself entirely up to physic, to which study his inclination had always led him, he traced it to its sources; and engaged so deeply in the reading of Hippocrates and Galen, that he scarcely did any thing but examine and translate those two authors. He discovered from thence the importance of anatomy, and applied himself to it so ardently, that he became as great a master as that age would permit. He studied pharmacy with no less care, and took several journeys to see, upon the spot, the medicines which different countries produce. Upon his return to Paris, he read lectures, and explained in two years a course of physic from Hippocrates and Galen; which so much extended his reputation, that scholars from all parts of Europe resorted to him. But being prohibited at last from teaching as not having taken his degree, he went to Montpellier in 1520 for that purpose, but not being willing to pay the expences of graduation, he returned to Paris, and by an agreement with the faculty, recommenced his lectures, although only a bachelor of physic. In 1535 he taught in the college of Treguier, while Fernelius taught in tbat of Cornouailles; but the latter had few scholars, while the former had about five hundred. The reason of this difference was, that Sylvius dissected bodies, and read lectures upon botany and the preparation of medicines, advantages which the scholars of Fernelius had not. The professorship of physic in the royal college becoming vacant in 1548, Sylvius was nominated to fill it; which he did, after hesitating about it two years. He continued in it till his death, which happened Jan. 13, 1555. He was never married, and shewed even an aversion to women. His personal character was particularly obnoxious. His behaviour was rude and barbarous. He had nothing social in his temper, or ever departed from a certain pompous stiffness; and it was observed that when he attempted to relax, he did it aukwardly. The only witticism related of him is, that “he had parted with three beasts, his cat, his mule, and his maid.” His avarice was extreme, and he lived in the most sordid manner: he allowed his servants nothing but dry bread, and had no fire all the winter. Two things served him as a remedy against cold; he played at foot-ball, and carried a great log upon his shoulders: and he said that the heat which he gained by this exercise was more beneficial to his health than that of a fire. He was most rigid in demanding his fees from his scholars, yet was puzzled often what to do with his money, for when, in 1616, his house in the rue de St. Jacques was pulled down, the workmen found many pieces of gold, which he had probably hid and knew not where to find. This avarice, which was his ruling passion, exposed him to the wit of his contemporaries. Buchanan has a distich on him, beginning “Sylvius hie situs est, gratis qui nil dedit unquam, &c.” and a dialogue was published under the title of “Sylvius ocreatus,” or “Sylvius booted,” of which it was thought that Henry Stephens was the author, by the assumed name of Ludovicus Arrivabenus Mantuanus. It is founded on the supposition that Sylvius, wishing to pass Acheron without paying anything, went in boots that he might ford it. This satire was answered by John Melet, one of his pupils, who adopted the name of Claudius Burgensis, and entitled his performance “Apologia in Lud. Arrivabenum pro D. J. Silvio.”