  We discuss the reception of Copernican astronomy by the Proven\c{c}al
humanists of the XVIth-XVIIth centuries, beginning with Michel de Montaigne who
was the first to recognize the potential scientific and philosophical
revolution represented by heliocentrism. Then we describe how, after Kepler's
Astronomia Nova of 1609 and the first telescopic observations by Galileo, it
was in the south of France that the New Astronomy found its main promotors with
the humanists and "amateurs \'eclair\'es", Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc and
Pierre Gassendi. The professional astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini, also from
Provence, would later elevate the field to new heights in Paris.
