| Administrative History | Joseph Du Chesne, latinised as Quercetanus, was born in L'Esture or Esturre in Gascony c 1544. He graduated with a medical degree from Basel in 1573 and moved to Lyon where he practised medicine. He married Anne Tyre, a daughter of a magistrate and grand-daughter of Guillaume Bude (French scholar, 1467 – 1540) .
In 1580, he left Lyon and practised in Kassel in Germany for a time before moving to Geneva. He was granted citizenship of Geneva in 1584 and became a person of considerable standing and influence in the Republic. He was received into the Council of 200 in 1587 and the Council of 60 in 1594. In the 1590s, he went to Paris where he was appointed Physician Ordinary to King Henry IV.
He was the author of several works on medicine and other topics. He was a controversial figure who appeared to be at odds with many of his contemporaries. His views provoked heated debate in Paris and, owing to his chemistry training, helped to introduce the school of thought that saw medicine and physiology as topics to be regarded in terms of the chemistry of the time. He was also interested in alchemy and accepted the existence of the philosopher's stone and transmutation as a matter of course. He died in 1609.
John Philoponius was an Alexandrian philosopher who lived c 490 to c570. He is credited with helping to introduce the foundations for modern, more critical thought and scientific analysis and is renowned for his critical commentaries on Aristotle. |