Jean d'Espagnet (1564 – c. 1637) was a French

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

polymath A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...

. He was a lawyer and politician, a mathematician and

alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

, an

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

, poet and friend of French literati. D'Espagnet was a counsellor in the

Parlement Under the French Ancien Régime, a ''parlement'' () was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 ''parlements'', the original and most important of which was the ''Parlement'' of Paris. Though both th ...

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

and its president from the years 1600 to 1611. In this position he was involved, with

Pierre de Lancre Pierre de Rosteguy de Lancre or Pierre de l'Ancre, Lord of De Lancre (1553–1631), was the French judge of Bordeaux who conducted the massive Labourd witch-hunt of 1609. In 1582 he was named judge in Bordeaux, and in 1608 Henry IV of France, Kin ...

, in

witch-hunting A witch hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the Middle East. ...

Labourd Labourd (; ; ; ) is a former French province and part of the present-day Pyrénées Atlantiques '' département'' of Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. It is one of the traditional Basque provinces, and identified as one of the territorial component pa ...

. D'Espagnet co-chaired De Lancre's 1609 repression, also congratulating his colleague on his job in the introduction to ''L'Incrédulité et mécréance du sortilège pleinement convaincues'', besides condemning the Basque people, "this perverse people". Jean D'Espagnet is known to have owned several books that had previously formed part of Montaigne's library, including his copy of

De rerum natura (; ''On the Nature of Things'') is a first-century BC Didacticism, didactic poem by the Roman Republic, Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius () with the goal of explaining Epicureanism, Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience. The poem, writte ...

, in which his signature overwrites that of Montaigne's on the title-page. In 1623, D'Espagnet wrote ''Arcanum Hermeticae philosophiae'' and ''Enchiridion physicae restitutae''.Written in Latin; D'Espagnet is occasionally called Spagnetus. The publication was anonymous. The attribution dates back to the middle of the seventeenth century. His son,

Étienne d'Espagnet Étienne d'Espagnet (born c. 1596) was the son of parliamentary counselor Jean D'Espagnet, Jean d'Espagnet and Charlotte De Mangeau. He became a parliamentary counselor in 1617. He married in 1629 and had a son in 1634. He was friends with Viète a ...

, utilised his father's library and designed optics for astronomy.

Notes

External links

Galileo Project page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Espagnet, Jean d' 1564 births 1630s deaths 16th-century French physicians 17th-century French physicians 17th-century French writers 17th-century French male writers 16th-century French lawyers French male non-fiction writers French occult writers Witch hunters Witch trials in France 17th-century French lawyers