Claude Duret (c. 1570–1611) was a French judge, botanist, historiographer and linguist. He was a close friend of agriculturalist

Olivier de Serres Olivier de Serres (; 1539–1619) was a French author and soil scientist whose '' Théâtre d'Agriculture'' (1600) was the accepted textbook of French agriculture in the 17th century. Biography Serres was born in 1539 at Villeneuve-de-Berg, A ...

(1539–1619). He was a son of Louis Duret, personal physician to the French kings Charles IX and Henry III, and the father of Noël Duret, cosmographer to Louis XIII. Duret was an advocate of transmutation of species. He was the author of ''Histoire Admirable des Plantes'' (1605), which contained a passage that described falling tree leaves striking water and transforming into fishes and upon land into birds. Biologist Henry de Varigny wrote that the book "contains evolutionary notions of a very queer sort. He fully believes that many aquatic birds, as well as many sorts of insects, are generated from the rotten wood of trees."Varigny, Henry de. (1892)
''Experimental Evolution''
London: Macmillan. p. 14

Publications

Works by Duret include: * ''Discours de la vérité des causes et effects des décadences, mutations, changements, conversions et ruines des monarchies, empires, royaumes et républiques...'' (Paris, 1595), * ''Discours de la Vérité des Causes et effets des décadences, mutations etc des Monarchies, Empires et Républiques ; selon l'opinion des anciens et modernes mathématiciens, Astrologues, mages, etc.'' [Lyon, 1595),
''Histoire admirable des plantes et herbes esmerveillables et miraculeuses en nature''
(Paris, 1605), * ''Thrésor de l'histoire des langues de cest univers, contenant les origines, beautés... décadences, mutations... et ruines des langues hébraïque, chananéenne... etc., les langues des animaux et oiseaux''
Coligny, 1613

References

* Adrien Davy de Virville (ed.) ''Histoire de la botanique en France.'' (1955), p. 394 * Michaud, '' Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne'' (1814)
389f.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duret, Claude 1611 deaths 17th-century French botanists Proto-evolutionary biologists Year of birth uncertain 16th-century French botanists