Guy (or Guido) Patin (1601 in Hodenc-en-Bray,

Oise Oise ( ; ; pcd, Oése) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise. Inhabitants of the department are called ''Oisiens'' () or ''Isariens'', after the Latin name for the river, Isara. It had a population of 829,419 ...

– 30 August 1672 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) was a French doctor and man of letters. Patin was doyen (or dean) of the Faculty of Medicine in

(1650–1652) and professor in the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...

starting in 1655. His scientific and medical works are not considered particularly enlightened by modern medical scholars (he has sometimes been compared to the doctors in the works of

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

). He is most well known today for his extensive correspondence: his style was light and playful (he has been compared to early 17th century philosophical

libertine A libertine is a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which they see as unnecessary or undesirable, and is especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour ob ...

s), and his letters are an important document for historians of medicine. Patin and his son

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

were also dealers in clandestine books, and Patin wrote occasional poetry (such as a quatrain to honor Henric Piccardt (1636-1712) On 22 March 1648, Patin wrote a famous letter commenting on the new rage of

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

drinking in Paris, calling it "the impertinent novelty of the century", and mentioning the new book by Dr. Philibert Morisset titled ''Ergo Thea Chinesium, Menti Confert'' (Does Chinese Tea Increase Mentality?), which praises tea as a panacea:

One of our doctors, named Morisset, who is much more of a braggart than a skilful man... caused a thesis on tea to be published here. Everybody disapproved of it; there were some of our doctors who burned it, and protests were made to the dean for having approved the thesis.

''Naudaeana et Patiniana, ou, Singularitez Remarquables'', recording conversations between Patin and his great friend

Gabriel Naudé Gabriel Naudé (2 February 1600 – 10 July 1653) was a French librarian and scholar. He was a prolific writer who produced works on many subjects including politics, religion, history and the supernatural. An influential work on library science ...

, librarian of the

Bibliothèque Mazarine The Bibliothèque Mazarine, or Mazarin Library, is located within the Palais de l'institut de France, or the Palace of the Institute of France (previously the Collège des Quatre-Nations of the University of Paris), at 23 quai de Conti in the 6 ...

, was edited by

Jean-Aymar Piganiol de La Force Jean-Aymar Piganiol de la Force (Aurillac, 1673 – Paris, 1753), son of Pierre and of Marguerite Parisot, dame de La Force, was a French man of letters known above all for works of a descriptive geographical character, for which he travelled exten ...

and published in Paris, 1701; a revised edition with a Preface by

Pierre Bayle Pierre Bayle (; 18 November 1647 – 28 December 1706) was a French philosopher, author, and lexicographer. A Huguenot, Bayle fled to the Dutch Republic in 1681 because of religious persecution in France. He is best known for his '' Historica ...

appeared in Amsterdam, 1703.

References

Sources

Gustave Vapereau Louis Gustave Vapereau (4 April 1819 – 18 April 1906) was a French writer and lexicographer famous primarily for his dictionaries, the ''Dictionnaire universel des contemporains'' and the ''Dictionnaire universel des littérateurs''. Biography ...

, ''Dictionnaire universel des littératures'', Paris, Hachette, 1876, p. 1554.
Thèse de l’École des chartes de Laure Jestaz (2001)
* Françoise Waquet,
Guy et Charles Patin, père et fils, et la contrebande du livre à Paris au XVIIe siècle
' in Journal des savants, 1979, n°2. pp. 125–148. * Loïc Capron
Correspondance française de Guy Patin
édition critique en ligne sur le site de la Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de Santé

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patin, Guy 1601 births 1672 deaths 17th-century French physicians French medical writers Physicians from Paris Writers from Paris