Pierre Borel ( la, Petrus Borellius; c. 1620 – 1671) was a French savant: a chemist (and reputed

alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...

), physician, and botanist. Borel was born in Castres. He became a doctor of medicine at the University of Montpellier in 1640. In 1654 he became physician to the King of France, Louis XIV. In 1663 he married Esther de Bonnafous. In 1674 he became a member of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

. He died in Paris. He concerned himself with an eclectic range of subjects: optics, ancient history, philology and bibliography. His biographers have tended to deplore his spreading of himself over so many areas. In '' The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'', H. P. Lovecraft (mis)represents Borellus (sic) as a potent necromancer. In fact, the novels opens with a quote from Borellus.

Works

* ''Les antiquités de Castres'', 1649 * ''Bibliotheca chimica'', 1654 * ''Trésor de recherches et d'antiquités gauloises et françaises'', 1655 * ''Historiarium et observationum medico-physicarum centuria IV'', 1653, 1656 * ''De vero telescopii inventore'', 1655. * ''Vitae Renati Cartesii, summi philosophi compendium'', 1656. * ''Discours nouveau prouvant la pluralité des mondes'', 1657.

Notes

References

*Marie-Rose Carré, ''A Man between Two Worlds: Pierre Borel and His Discours nouveau prouvant la pluralité des mondes of 1657'', Isis, Vol. 65, No. 3 (Sep., 1974), pp. 322–335 *Pierre Chabbert, ''Pierre Borel (1620 ?-1671)'', Revue d’histoire des sciences 21 (1968), 303-43.

External links

* Didier Foucault
''Pierre Borel''
__NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Borel, Pierre 1620 births 1689 deaths People from Castres French archaeologists French naturalists 17th-century French chemists 17th-century antiquarians