Guillaume de Harsigny (c. 1300 – 10 July 1393)
[Some sources give a birthdate of 1310.] was a French doctor and court physician to
Charles V of France, and one of the most notable physicians of his time.
[Glain (2005), 3]
His effigy in the Musée d'art et d'archéologie de Laon (Musée de Laon) is well known as one of the earliest known French
Cadaver monument
A cadaver monument or ''transi'' (or memento mori monument, Latin for "reminder of death") is a type of church monument to deceased persons featuring a sculpted effigy of a skeleton or an emaciated, even decomposing, dead body. It was particularly ...
s (''transi'').
Life
Harsigny studied medicine in Paris, where he also obtained his doctorate. He traveled across the Mediterranean, notably to Italy, Palestine, Syria, and Egypt,
[Heimerman, Emily.]
A Portrait of Death: Analyzing the Transi Tomb of Guillaume de Harcigny (1300-1393 A.D.)
. ''The Coalition of Master's Scholars on Material Culture'', 2 April 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2023 visiting centers of medical scholarship such as the
Schola Medica Salernitana. Having expanded his knowledge, he returned to his homeland,
Picardy
Picardy (; Picard and french: Picardie, , ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France. It is located in the northern part of France.
Hi ...
, where, in the course of the plague epidemics of the Black Death, he gained a reputation as one of the best doctors in France. Thus, he became the personal physician of the powerful feudal lord Enguerrand VII de Coucy.. During this time, he learned new medical techniques and compiled information from medical manuscripts.
When king
Charles VI of France
Charles VI (3 December 136821 October 1422), nicknamed the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé) and later the Mad (french: le Fol or ''le Fou''), was King of France from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychotic ...
suffered a nervous breakdown in August 1392 near Le Mans, during a campaign against Brittany, unexpectedly attacked his own companions, killing some of them and falling into a coma himself, he was already abandoned by his doctors. It was only under the care of the aged Harsigny that the king recovered. This unexpected cure was the culmination of Harsigny's medical career.
Harcigny died in his home in
Laon, France
Laon () is a city in the Aisne Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
History
Early history
The holy district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held str ...
in 1393.
[Tuchman (1978), 529][Cadaver Monument of Guillaume de Harcigny (D. 1393)](_blank)
Church Monument Society, 2010. Retrieved 25 June 2023
Notes
References
Bibliography
*Glain, Stephen. (2005). ''Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants: The Economic Collapse of the Arab World''. St. Martin's Griffin.
* Tuchman, Barbara. (1978). ''A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century''. New York: Ballantine.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harsigny, Guillaume de
1300 births
1393 deaths
14th-century French physicians