Joseph Duchesne or du Chesne (Quercetan, Latin Josephus Quercetanus) ( 1544–1609) was a French physician. A follower of

Paracelsus Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. H ...

, he is now remembered for important if transitional

alchemical Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim wor ...

theories. He called sugar toxic, saying: “Under its whiteness, sugar hides a great blackness.”

Biography

Duchesne was born around 1544 in Armagnac and studied at Montpellier, and then at

Basle Basel ( , ), also known as Basle ( ),french: Bâle ; it, Basilea ; rm, label= Sutsilvan, Basileia; other rm, Basilea . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city (after Zürich an ...

, where he received a medical diploma in 1573. During the 1570s at

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

, he married Anne Trie the granddaughter of Guillaume Budé, and became a

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

convert. He went into medical practice and became physician to Francis, Duke of Anjou. He left Lyon in 1580 for

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2 ...

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Da ...

, and moved on to

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situ ...

, where in 1584 he received citizenship. Duchesne was elected to the

Council of Two Hundred The Councils of Two Hundred (; ) were the legislative authorities in four Swiss cities (Zürich, Bern, Fribourg, Basel), as well as in the independent Republic of Geneva prior to the French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a peri ...

in 1587, and undertook diplomatic missions to Bern, Basle,

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimat ...

and Zurich in the years 1589 to 1596. In 1594 he became a member of the Council of Sixty. In 1598, following the

Edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was in essence completely Catholic. In the edict, Henry aim ...

, Duchesne returned to France and became physician-in-Ordinary attending

Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

. In 1601

Nicolas Brûlart de Sillery Nicolas Brûlart de Sillery (1544 – 1 October 1624) was a foreign minister and Lord Chancellor of France. He was son of Pierre Brûlart, seigneur de Berny, and Marie Cauchon, dame de Sillery et de Puisieux. He married Claude Prudhomme on 24 ...

gave him a mission as envoy to the Swiss cantons. In 1604 he went to the court of

Maurice of Hesse-Cassel Maurice of Hesse-Kassel (german: Moritz; 25 May 1572 – 15 March 1632), also called Maurice the Learned or Moritz, was the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) in the Holy Roman Empire from 1592 to 1627. Life Maurice was born in Kassel a ...

where he gave scientific demonstrations in a laboratory set up for him.

Works

* 1576 : ''Sclopetarius''–On wounds made by

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket graduall ...

s and similar weapons * 1603 : ''De priscorum philosophorum verae medicinae material'' * 1604
''Ad veritatem hermeticae medicinae ex Hippocratis veterumque decretis ac therapeusi''
* 1606 : ''Tetras gravissimorum totius capitis affectuum'', Marburg: Paulus Egenolphus, 1606. * 1607 : ''Pharmacopea dogmaticorum'' **
''La farmacopea overo antidotario riformato del signore Giuseppe Quercetano…''
translated by Giacomo Ferrari. Venice, 1619 **
''La pharmacopée des dogmatiques''
2nd ed. with emendations. Rouen: Corneille Pitreson, 1639 * 1619
''Le Ricchezze della riformata Farmacopea del Giuseppe Quercetano. Nouamente di Favella Latina traportata in Italiana da Giacomo Ferrari''
- Venice: Guerigli, 1619. * 1625
''Pharmacopeia restituta''
- Strassburg: Zetzner, 1625. * 1625
''Diaeteticon polyhistoricum''
Strassburg: Zetzner, 1625. * 1625
''Tétrade des plus grièves maladies de tout le cerveau''
* 1639
''Traicté familier de l'exacte preparation spagirique des medicamens''
Rouen: Corneille PitresonSee " spagyric". * 1648
''Quercetanus redivivus, hoc est, ars medica dogmatico-hermetica'' Vol.1-3
- Francofurti: Beyer, 1648.

Notes

References

*Hirai, Hiro (2010). “The World-Spirit and Quintessence in the Chymical Philosophy of Joseph Du Chesne,” in Chymia: Science and Nature in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (1450–1750), ed. Miguel Lopez-Perez et al. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, pp. 247–261. * *

External links

Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
High resolution images of works by and/or portraits of Joseph Duchesne in .jpg and .tiff format. {{DEFAULTSORT:Duchesne, Joseph 1544 births 1609 deaths 16th-century French physicians Huguenots 16th-century French diplomats Court physicians