Excerpt from The Life of Bernard Palissy, of Saintes For the birth of Bernard Palissy I can assign no more precise date than the year 1509, with a concession that this may be wrong within a limit of four years on either side. The date chosen by M. Cap, his latest editor, is 1510. Of the birthplace of Bernard Palissy we only know that it was somewhere in the diocese of Agen. M. Cap, who is followed by succeeding writers, does, indeed, undertake to be particular. He tells us that Palissy was born at Chapelle Biron, a poor hamlet near the small town of Biron, in Perigord. The town of Biron lies so near the southern boundary of Perigord, upon the little river Lade, that to descend the Lade only so far as to Chapelle Biron is to cross from Perigord into the Agenois. Chapelle Biron is placed about three quarters of a mile over the border; but although politically situated in the diocese of Agen, it belongs, by virtue of its scenery, to Perigord. Perigord is a province in part hilly and mountainous, in part made up of barren plains. In the days of Palissy it abounded more than it now does in forest tracts, containing many walnut-trees, and chesnuts in such great abundance that they formed the staple food of the poor natives. These chesnuts also aided in the fattening of herds of pigs, whose noses were at all times prompt to perceive where truffles were concealed under the light soil within the forest. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.