PITHOU, Peter, a Frenchman of great literary eminence, was descended from an ancient and noble family in Normandy, and born at Troyes in 1539. His taste for li terature early showed itself, and his father cultivated it to the utmost. He first studied at Troyes, and was subsequently sent to Paris, where he became the scholar and friend of Turnebus. Having finished his pursuits in languages and the belles lettres, he was removed to Bourges, and placed under Cujacius to study the civil law. His father was well skilled in his profession, and has left a favourable specimen of his judgment in the advice he gave to his son as to the best method of acquiring a knowledge of law; which was, not to spend his time and labour upon commentators, but to confine his reading chiefly to original writers. The latter made so rapid a progress, that at the age of seventeen he was able to speak extempore upon the most difficult questions; and his master was not ashamed to own, that even he himself had learned some things of his pupil. Cujacius afterwards removed to Valence, whither Pithou followed him, and continued to profit by his lectures until the year 1560. He then returned to Paris, and frequented the bar of the parliament there, in order to combine a knowledge of practical forms and usages with his theoretical acquisitions.

In 1563, being then only twenty-four, Pithou published his Adversaria Subcesiva, a work highly applauded by Turnebus, Lipsius, and other learned men, and which laid thd foundation of that extensive fame which he subsequently acquired. Soon after this, Henry III. advanced him to some considerable posts, in which, as well as at the bar, he acquitted himself most creditably. Pithou, being a Calvinist, narrowly escaped being involved in the massacre of St Bartholomew in 1572; for he was in Paris when this tragedy took place, and in the same lodgings with several Huguenots, who were all killed. It seems indeed to have frightened him out of his religion, which he soon afterwards abjured, at the same time openly embracing the Catholic faith. At a subsequent period, he attended the Duke of Montmorency into England; and upon his return, his great sagacity, invincible good nature, and amiable manners, rendered him a kind of oracle to his countrymen, and even to foreigners, who consulted him upon all important occasions. An instance of this we have in the conduct of Ferdinand, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who not only consulted him, but even submitted to his determination in a point contrary to his interests. ' Henry III. and Henry IV. were greatly indebted to him for combating the League in the most intrepid manner, and for many other services, in which he had recourse to his pen as well as to other means.

Pithou died upon his birth-day in the year 1596, leaving a wife, whom he had married in 1579, and several children. De Thou says he was the most excellent and accomplished man of the age in which he lived; and all the learned have concurred in speaking well of him. He collected a very valuable library, containing a variety of rare manuscripts, as well as printed books; and he took many precautions, but in vain, to prevent its being dispersed after his death. He published a great number of works upon law, history, and classical literature; and he gave several new and correct editions of ancient writers. He was the first who made the world acquainted with the Fables of Phaedrus, which were utterly unknown till they were published from a manuscript in his possession. His numerous works belong to the civil and the canon law, to history, and to literature properly so called. As a jurisconsult, Lefebvre observed of him, “Cujacius discipulo pracripuit [7:17:759]ne primis jurisconsultus esset; ille praeceptori ne solus.” He was closely connected in friendship with Cujacius, and, after the death of the latter, he published his master’s Observations on the Roman Law, accompanied with Remarks and Annotations of his own. We are also indebted to him for the discovery of the laws of the Visigoths, which he published in 1579.

His principal writings on the canon law are, 1. Corpus Juris Canonici, 1687, in two vols. folio; 2. Codex Canonum vetus.ecclesiasticum, in folio; 3. Gallicae Ecclesiacin schismate Status, in 8vo; and, 4. A Treatise on the Liberties of the Gallican Church. Pithou also published an edition of the Capitularies, which has since been surpassed by that of Balzuc; a series of French annalists, from the eighth to the thirteenth century; Memoirs of the Counts de Champagne and de Brie; the Historical Fragments of St Hilarius, containing curious particulars respecting the Council of Rimini; and the writings of several ancient doctors of the Gallican Church, of which several had until then remained inedited. We are likewise indebted to him for editions, from the best manuscripts, of several ancient geographers, the Itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem, the works of Salvian, the Declamations of the Roman rhetoricians, Juvenal and Persius, Petronius, and the moral Distichs attributed to Cato. He enriched literature, as already mentioned, with the Fables of Phaedrus,.the manuscript of which had been discovered by his brother, and also with the Pervigilium Veneris, both previously unknown. Lastly, he amused himself with paying court to the Latin muses; but his poetry, like his eloquence, had no other ornament than it derived from the thoughts.