Peiresc's position as a great intellectual at the time of the scientific revolution has led to his being called a "Prince of the Republic of Letters". He was also a noted politician in his home region, and a tireless letter-writer (10,000 of his letters survive, and he was in constant correspondence with François de Malherbe, Hugo Grotius, the brothers Dupuy, Alphonse-Louis du Plessis de Richelieu, and with his great friend Rubens. His correspondence to Malherbe throws light on the personality of Malherbe's troubled son Marc-Antoine Malherbe.