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WESTFALL CATALOGUE - SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY Dr Robert A. Hatch - University of Florida Search - Name - Word - Category - Concept - Secondary Source - Author |
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Gagliardi, Domenico 1. Dates: Born: Rome, c. 1660; Died: Rome, c. 1725. These are Olagüe's dates; they differ from those in DSB. His work is more recent, and it appears authoritative. Datecode: Both Birth & Death Dates Uncertain Lifespan: 65 2. Father: No Information. No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Birth: Italian; Career: Italy; Death: Italian 4. Education: University of Sapienza (Rome); M.D. This is not really known; it is the assumption of the authorities on Gagliardi. 5. Religion: Catholic. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Anatomy; Medicine; Mcr; His name is especially connected with anatomy, particularly the skeletal system, which he summarized in Anatomes ossium novis inventis illustrata (1689). The book contains the first description of a case of what was presumably tuberculosis of the bone. He carried out morphological and microscopic investigations on human bones, using chemical reagents in order to bring out the fine structure. In 1720 he did a close study of the pneumonia epidemic raging in Rome. His study was anatomicopathological in approach and based on carefully conducted autopsies. The study led to his Relazione de' male di petto, 1720. He also published other medical works. 7. Means of Support: Medicine; Academic; Government Position; There is little or no information on his life. The scanty information provided by biographers indicates that he was a professor at the University of Rome, but his name did not appear in the rotoli. He was also the protomedico of the Papal States, and of Rome in particular, a function in some measure similar to that of a chief provincial doctor. Gagliardi was also the dean of the physicians at the hosptial of Santo Spirito. 8. Patronage: Ecclesiastic Official; Medical Practioner; The entry 'Ecc' assumes that someone moved his appointment as protomedico. Gagliardi dedicated his Relazione to Sinibaldo Doria, Supervisor of the Hospital of Santo Spirito in Rome. 9. Technological Connections: Medical Practioner; 10. Scientific Societies: Medical College (Any One); He was a member of the Medical College of Rome. SOURCES:
Galilei, Vincenzio
1. Dates: Born: Firenze, c. 1520; Died: Firenze; buried on 2 July 1591; Datecode: Birth Date Uncertain; Lifespan: 71 2. Father: Aristocrat; Michelangelo Galilei was from a Florentine patrician family. Vincenzio himself married into a Pisan patrician family. No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Birth: Italian; Career: Italian; Death: Italian 4. Education: None Known; He began his study in music at Florence about 1540. After establishing his reputation as a lutenist, he studied at Venice under Gioseffo Zarlino probably about 1561-1562. There is no mention of a university or of a degree, either of which would have been irrelevant to one of his position and calling. 5. Religion: Catholic. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Music; Subordinate Disciplines: Physics; His principal theoretical work, Dialogo della musica antica e della moderna, published at Florence in 1581, attacked the prevailing basis of musical theory. In his Discorso (1589) he employed experimental results to show that the traditional association of numbers with particular musical intervals was capricious. The qualities of intervals had to be determined by the ear. He stated the law that a given musical interval between similar strings is produced either by different lengths proportional to the interval, or by tensions that vary as the squares of the intervals when the length stays constant. This was probably the first mathematical law of physics to have been derived by systemetic experimentation. 7. Means of Support: Music; Patronage; Schoolmaster; Before 1561, he had established himself as a lutenist. It is clear that he gave lessons throughout his life-to the patricians in Bardi's circle (the Camerata), then to people of similar class in Pisa between 1562 and 1570, and again in Florence after that. In the latter period he composed a Compendio della theorica della musica. In 1578 or 79 he visited the court of the Duke of Bavaria, but I found no further information about this trip. It seems clear that he was the client of Count Giovanni Bardi, who was deeply interested in music, and at whose home a sort of academy, the Camerata, gathered. 8. Patronage: Aristocratic Patronage; His patron, Count Giovanni Bardi, sent Galilei to Venice to study musical harmony under Zarlino, and then to Rome to learn about Greek music from Girolamo Mei, and at some time Bardi also sent him to Messina and Marseille, again in pursuit of musical learning. 9. Technological Connections: None Known; 10. Scientific Societies: Galilei was part of the circle, or academy, the Camerata, that gathered in Bardi's home. Galilei corresponded with the humanist Girolamo Mei, whom he also visited in Rome, on questions of musical theory. (See C. Palisca, ed., Girolamo Mei, Letters on Ancient and Modern Music, 1960). Galilei carried on a polemic, which lasted from 1578 until nearly his death, on the rules of harmony. SOURCES:
Not Available and/or Not Consulted: F.
Fano, 'La camerata fiorentina,' Istitutioni e monumenti dell'arte
musicale italiani, 4, (Milano, 1934). H. Martin, 'La 'Camerata' du
Comte Bardi et la musique florentine du XVIe siècle,'
Revue
de musicologie, 13 and 14 (1932 and 33). A Favaro, 'Ascendenti
e collaterali di Galileo Galilei,' Archivio storico italiana, ser.
5, 47 (1971).
Galilei, Galileo
1. Dates: Born: Pisa, 15 February 1564; Died: Arcetri, immediately outside of Florence, 8 January 1642; Datecode: Lifespan: 78 2. Father: Musician; Merchant; Vincenzio Galilei was descended from a Florentine patrician family. He himself was a distinguished musician. He was not an economic success. He died leaving his oldest son (Galileo) with heavy financial responsibilities but no assets. Financial stringency forced the father into commerce and made him move to Pisa, where Galileo was born. Everything is relative. I cannot see that Galileo grew up impoverished for all the talk of his father's lack of success. I list the financial position as unknown. 3. Nationality: Birth: Italian; Career: Italian; Death: Italian 4. Education: University of Pisa; As a boy he was tutored in Pisa. The family returned to Florence about 1575, and Galileo went to the school of the monastery at Vallombrosa. He entered the order as a novice in 1578, but did not pursue the clerical life. He enrolled in Pisa in 1581 as a medical student, but left without a degree. Galileo was attracted to mathematics and studied it under Ostillio Ricci in 1583. After he left Pisa, he studied mathematics privately. 5. Religion: Catholic. It is known to everyone that Galileo was denounced to the Inquisition in 1615 and that he was tried and condemned by the Inquisition in 1633, living the rest of his life under house arrest. All of this was for Copernicanism, not for any heretical theological views. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Physics; Mechanics; Astronomy; Subordinate Disciplines: Mathematics; Optics; Natural Philosophy; I won't try to list many details of a scientific career that is very well known. De motu while at Pisa; Le mechaniche in the early 90's; work on motion during the first decade of the 17th century, with the composition of a treatise; the Discorsi in 1638. Telescopic observations, together with some thought on light and sight beginning in 1609. Il saggiatore, a work of many dimensions, including method and natural philosophy in general. The Dialogo, far and away the leading polemic for the Copernican system, in 1632. The dispute on floating bodies, 1611-12. 7. Means of Support: Academic; Patronage; Schoolmaster; Secondary Means of Support: Instruments; During 1585-9 Galileo gave lessons in mathematics in Florence and Siena. 1588, applied unsuccessfully for the chair in mathematics at Bologna. 1589, appointed to the chair in mathematics at Pisa; there until 1592. 1592, appointed to the chair in mathematics at Padua; there until 1610. In Padua he gave private instruction in military engineering, mechanics, and astronomy, and made his home into a hostel for his students. While in Florence he continued to give private lessons-e.g., Guiducci and the two Arrighetti; there is no reason to think those three exhaust the number. While in Padua he produced his geometric and military compass and other instruments for sale. Before he returned permanently to Florence, Galileo came back during several summers to instruct the crown prince in mathematics. 1610, appointed Mathematician and Philosopher to the Grand Duke Cosimo II, with a stipend of 1000 scudi. He was also professor of mathematics at Pisa, without obligation to teach or to reside in Pisa, and in fact his annual stipend came from the budget of the university. Nevertheless I treat this as patronage rather than an academic appointment. Galileo remained in this position for the rest of his life. 8. Patronage: Scientist; Aristocratic Patronage; Ecclesiastic Official; Court Patronage; Magistrate; 1588, Guidobaldo del Monte supported his application to the University of Bologna. 1589, the same to Pisa. 1592, the same to Padua. I could categorize Guidobaldo as an aristocrat, but it seems more correct to categorize him here as a scientist. In Padua he formed friendships with Sagredo and with other Venetian patricians, including Aproino who also got into one of Galileo's dialogues. He mobilized his patrician friends to lobby for his reappointments in 1598 and 1604. In 1604 Galileo instructed the Duke of Mantua in the use of the geometric and military compass, presented him with one, and received in return gifts worth more than his annual salary. In Florence he spent much of his early years (after the return) in the villa of Salviati, who also got into the dialogues. Galileo dedicated his geometric and military compass to the crown prince Cosimo (after asking if he could do so). See above for his relationship to the Tuscan court. In 1610, with consumate flattery, he dedicated the Sidereus nuncius to the Grand Duke, naming the satellites of Jupiter the Medicean Stars. He had earlier informed the court that he would only publish his discoveries under the auspices of the Grand Duke. After the publication, he came to Florence specifically to instruct the Grand Duke in the use of the instrument he had given him. For the dedication Galileo received a gold chain and a gold medal worth 400 scudi, and not long thereafter he received the appointment at the court. Later Galileo dedicated the Dialogo to Cosimo's sucesssor as Grand Duke. Just before his return to Florence, when he first perfected the telescope beyond the Dutch model into a nine power device, Galileo gave it to the Venetian Senate without asking for any return. He got a life appointment with a virtual doubling of his salary to 1000 florins. In the immediate aftermath of the Sidereus nuncius Galileo received requests for telescopes from a large number of cardinals, and from the French Queen, the Holy Roman Emperor, German Princes, and Italian Dukes. Card. Scipione Borghese, the powerful Papal nephew, made one of the requests, and he rewarded Galileo (who refused to accept money for the telescopes) with a gold chain. He received the suggestion from the French court that he should name the next celestial body he found for 'the star of France,' and that in doing so he would make himself and his family wealthy forever. In 1612, through the Florentine court, he attempted to pedal his method for determining longitude at sea to the Spanish monarchy. 1611-12, he met Card. Maffeo Barberini who became his patron and made one of his poems a hymn in praise of Galileo. When Barberini was elected Pope Urban VIII, Galileo dedicated Il saggiatore to him. In 1611 Federigo Cesi inducted him into the Accademia dei Lincei, published several of Galileo's books, and in general acted as his patron. In Rome Galileo formed the friendship of Marsili, a Bolognese patrician whom he contrived to mention in the Dialogo. Galileo dedicated the Discorsi to the Duke de Noailles, the French ambassador to Rome. 9. Technological Connections: Scientific Instruments; Hydraulics; Military Engineer; Cartography; Navigation; He improved the hydrostatic balance and the proportional compass. He described a crude clock to use with his method of determining longitude. He perfected the crude telescope into an astronomical instrument, and he developed a device, sort of a protomicrometer, to measure diameters of stars and planets. He developmed a microscope. He developed a thermoscope. He patented a pump to lift water, and in 1631 he consulted for the Bisenzio flood control project. In Padua he gave instruction in military engineering. His method of determining longitude was, as he insisted, useful for cartography and well as for navigation. 10. Scientific Societies: Acad dei Lincei Leopoldina; Cesi inducted Galileo into the Accademia dei Lincei, and Galileo called himself the academician in his major works. His frienship and correspondence with Sarpi and Castelli. He developed a circle of young followers mostly in Florence-which included such as Viviani and Torricelli. See the correspondence for rich details about this. SOURCES:
Gallois [Galloys], Jean
1. Dates: Born: Paris, 11 June 1632; Died: Paris, 19 April 1707; Datecode: Lifespan: 75 2. Father: Law; Ambroise Gallois was a counsellor to the Parlement of Paris. Fontennelle calls him 'Avocat au Parlement.'; No explicit information on his financial status. 3. Nationality: Birth: French; Career: French; Death: French 4. Education: None Known; He studied theology, languages, and mathematics. He knew both living and classical languages, and was interested in sciences. There is no mention of university education. 5. Religion: Catholic. He was ordained as a priest in 1657. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Com; His name is associated with the famous Journal des scavans. He made the periodical a success, publishing forty-two issues as sole editor, after he took over in 1666. As an active member of the Académie, he was involved in a number of its publications. 7. Means of Support: Patronage; Government Position; Secondary Means of Support: Church Living; Academic January 1665-Apr. 1665, associate editor of Journal des scavans. 1666-1675, editor of Journal des scavans. At some point in here Colbert, who was responsible for his position as editor and for his membership in the Académie, obtained a pension for him of 1500 livres from the king. Colbert also arranged for his appointment to the small priory of St. Martin de Cuers in the diocese of Fréjus, from which Gallois received an income of 600 livres. 1667-1707, member of Académie royale des sciences (Paris); . 1699-1707, pensionary geomenter of Académie royale des sciences (Paris); . 1673, entered the Académie Francaise. He was also perpetual secretary of the Académie des Inscriptions. 1683- , custodian of the Royal Library, and professor of Greek at the Collège Royale. 8. Patronage: Government Official; Aristocratic Patronage; Gallois owed his editorship to Colbert, minister of finance, who was his principal patron. After the death of Colbert, the Marquis de Seignelai got him the positions at the Bibliotheque royale and the Collège royale, and the Marquis obtained a further pension from the king for him. 9. Technological Connections: None. 10. Scientific Societies: Académie royale des sciences (Paris); 1667-1707. He temporarily assumed the duties of the perpetual secretary when the secretary was on a diplomatic mission to England in 1667. With the reoganization of the Académie royale des sciences (Paris); in 1699 he was made pensionary geometer. SOURCES:
Not Available and Not Consulted: Denis-Francois
Camusat, Histoire critique des journaux, (Amsterdam, 1734), pp.214-310.
'Bibliographie de Jean Galloys', in Histoire de l'Académie royale
des sciences depuis 1666 jusqu'à son renouvellement en 1699,
2,
(Paris, 1733), p.360.
Gascoigne, William
1. Dates: Born: Middleton, Yorkshire, c. 1612. There is no record of Gascoigne's birth. His mother died in 1617, and he had a younger brother who was born about 1615. Died: battle of Marston Moor, Yorkshire, 2 July 1644; Datecode: Birth Date Uncertain; Lifespan: 32 2. Father: Gentry; Henry Gascoigne was a member of the gentry. Clearly prosperous. 3. Nationality: Birth: English; Career: English; Death: English 4. Education: Oxford University; Although there is no record of higher education, Gascoigne himself testified to study at Oxford. Like Horrocks at Cambridge, he found Oxford 'destitute of mathematical learning.' 5. Religion: Catholic. There does not seem to be any explicit record. However, his father was apparently Catholic. One story about him related him to Jesuits. And his papers passed into the hands of the prominent Yorkshire Catholic family, the Towneleys. I don't feel any serious doubt that Gascoigne was Catholic. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Astronomy; Optics; Instruments; As an observer, Gascoigne found Lansberg's tables in error, and this led him to give serious attention to issues of observational accuracy. In keeping with his interest in observational instruments, he was said to have a treatise of optics ready for the press, and an essay on optics did survive to be printed by Rigaud. He contributed greatly to instrumentation. He is asserted to have been the first to make a telescope with two convex lenses. (A telescope, which survives, that he did make in late 1640 was a Galilean type.) He invented methods of grinding glasses. Most important, he developed the first micrometer. He applied the telescope to the quadrant. 7. Means of Support: Personal Means; He inherited wealth. 8. Patronage: None Known; I have not found any indications of it, though the details on his life are few. 9. Technological Connections: Instruments; The invention of eyepiece micrometer, using a screw to measure the distance between two wires or plates inside the eyepiece, in order to measure small angles with precision. The application of the telescope to the quadrant. A lens grinding machine. 10. Scientific Societies: Informal Connections: Correspondence with J. Horrocks, W. Crabtree, W. Oughtred, and Christopher Towneley. SOURCES:
Not Available and Not Consulted: Allan
Chapman, Dividing the Circle, (New York, 1990).
Gassendi [Gassend], Pierre
1. Dates: Born: Champtercier (southeastern France), 22 January 1592; Died: Paris, 24 October 1655; Datecode: Lifespan: 63 2. Father: Peasant - Small Farmer; Gassendi was the son of Antoine Gassend and Francoise Fabry. His father was, by one account, a farmer on his own land, and by another (which is not necessarily inconsistent) a peasant. No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Birth: French; Career: French; Death: French 4. Education: University of Aix; Univeristy of Avignon; D.D. His uncle, Thomas Fabry the village priest was in charge of the early education of Gassendi. He then attended school at Digne from 1599 to 1606 (except for one year at Ruez). After a two year stay at home he returned to his formal schooling at the University at Aix. He studied philosophy under P. Philibert Fesaye and two years later studied theology under Professor Raphaelis. He returned to Digne in 1612 to become Principal of the College of Digne. He held this position for two years after which he received his doctorate in theology at Avignon. I assume a B.A. or its equivalent. 5. Religion: Catholic. In 1612 he took four minor orders of the Church. He was appointed canon at the Church in Digne in 1614. Two years later he celebrated his first mass. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Astronomy; Natural Philosophy; Subordinate Disciplines: Physics; From as early as 1625 until his death Gassendi occupied himself with rehabilitation of the philosophy of Epicurus. He began his research as part of a plan to dislodge Aristoteleanism as the source of authority and to replace it with Epicurean philosophy. In 1649 he published his Animadversiones containing a portion of his work on Epicurus. His years of research would appear again in 1653 as a revision of the earlier work and again in his Opera omnia. Gassendi was careful not to make Epicurean philosophy fall into the same trap as Aristotelian philosophy. He maintained a healthy skepticism that cautioned against equating information of the world with certain and complete knowledge of the true nature of things. His first work, which made him well-known in scientific circles, Exercitationes paradoxicae (1624) was based on his lectures at Aix and aimed against the scholastics. In addition to his Epicurean research, Gassendi wrote about the elements of astronomy and his own observations, falling bodies, and Descartes' Meditations. 7. Means of Support: Church Living; Patronage; Secondary Means of Support: Schoolmaster; Academic. From 1612-1614 he was the Principal at the College of Digne. He was also appointed canon of the church in Digne. He held the canonry until 1634 when he became Dean of the chapter. This was an important benefice, which he held for the rest of his life; it insured Gassendi against need. Gassendi was ordained a priest in 1616 or 17. In 1617 he won the chairs of theology and philosophy at Aix. He accepted the chair of philosophy but ceded the chair of theology to his former professor, Fesaye. Despite his dissatisfaction with Aristotelian doctrines he gave his students a thorough exposition of the scholastic teachings. He held this position for six years. When the Jesuits took over Aix, forcing him out, Gassendi returned to Digne where he attended to his ecclesiastical duties. In 1623-4 he was in Grenoble on a mission for the Digne chapter. In 1624-5 he went to Paris on another excursion for the chapter. He returned to Digne. He spent some of his time in Aix (as for example the winter of 1627-8) with Peiresc. In 1628 he made a trip to the Netherlands with Francois Luillier, and then stayed on in Paris until 1632, living for the most part with Luillier. He returned to Digne in 1632, where he continued to have duties. During the following years he was frequently in Aix with Peiresc until Peiresc died in 1637. Gassendi stayed in Provence until the mission to Paris in 1641. He travelled to Paris in 1641 to attend to ecclesiastical duties stemming from his nomination to the Agence du Clerge in 1639. I gather that he stayed on in Paris. After several years of research and writing, he returned to an academic post at the College Royale. Cardinal Alphonse Richelieu was influencial in the appointment of Gassendi to the professorship in mathematics in 1645. He did not hold this position long; ill health forced him to leave Paris in 1648 for Digne and Provence. He returned to Paris in 1653 to stay with Montmor until Gassendi's death. 8. Patronage: Aristocratic Patronage; Scientist; Government Official; Patronage of an Ecclesiatic Official. From 1628 until his death, Francois Luillier, maitre des comptes, was a friend and patron to Gassendi. Rochot calls him a wealthy financier; Joy calls him a wealthy lawyer. With that title, I'll settle for governmental official. He had purchased the position. In 1628 Gassendi travelled to the Netherlands with Luillier, stayed with him in Paris after they returned, and later lived with him in 1641 when he was in Paris on ecclesiastical business. Gassendi dedicated De vita et moribus Epicuri to him. Gassendi met Mersenne during his first stay in Paris. Mersenne set him on the task of writing against Fludd, and to Mersenne he dedicated the work. Peiresc was a constant source of support to Gassendi. Gassendi lived in the home of Peiresc for the last year of the latter's life. Gassendi was so distraught after Peiresc's death that he stopped writing for about four years. I find it of great interest that Peiresc and Luillier (and later Valois and Luillier) did not appear to think of themselves as being in competition; they even corresponded about their mutual client. One year after Peiresc's death Gassendi met Louis Emmanuel de Valois, Governor of Provence, who showed interest in his work. Gassendi accompanied him on an official tour in 1640. The year previous Valois supported Gassendi's nomination to the Agence du Clerge. Rochot discusses their relation (pp. 84-6). Valois was a man of no particular learning himself who nevertheless, from the moment he arrived in Provence, saw the support of Gassendi as a vital office. As usual, no one gives any real insight into his motives. Nevertheless, Valois and Gassendi corresponded with great frequency. There are 350 letters from Valois, and there would be more had the two not often been living in the same city. They remained in touch until Valois' death. Valois made possible the experiment of dropping an object from the mast of a galley and was present at the experiment. Gassendi dedicated his Institutio astronomica to Cardinal Richelieu in appreciation for his position at the College Royale obtained by Richelieu's influence. On his last trip to Paris Gassendi took up residence in the home of Montmor where he (Gassendi) died in 1655. 9. Technological Connections: Cartography; Gassendi corrected the geographical coordinates of the Mediterranean Sea. 10. Scientific Societies: He was introduced into the circle of the brothers DuPuy who met at the library of President du Thou. Undoubtedly he was among the corresponding members of Mersenne's group. Towards the end of his life he belonged to the Montmor academy. Among his many friends or correspondents were Beeckman, Galileo, Snel, Mydorge, Patin, Bouchard, Naudé, Sorbière, du Perier of Aix, Diodati, and Gautier. SOURCES:
Gayant, Louis
1. Dates: fl. 1667-1673 Died: Maestricht (Netherlands), 1673; Datecode: flourished (two dates give known period); Lifespan: 2. Father: No Information. No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Birth: It appears to be known that he was born in Clermont en Beauvais, France, although the year is not known. Career: French; Death: Although, strictly speaking, Gayant died in the Netherlands, it was at the seige of Maestricht, as part of the French army. For my purposes, he died in a French context. 4. Education: None Known; He was trained in medicine. It is not clear that he did in fact have an M.D. 5. Religion: Unknown; 6. Scientific Disciplines: Anatomy; He was one of the most able anatomists of his time. His name seems to be associated firmly with the demonstration of a number of venous valves which were already known but not universally accepted in 1667, and with the operation of blood transfusion performed in 1667. He was an important member of the group working in comparative anatomy in the Academy and he contributed substantially to their series of publications. 7. Means of Support: Medicine; Government Position; He was serving as a military physician at the time of his death. He appears to have been a surgeon. By 1667 he became a important member of the group working in comparative anatomy in the Academy. 8. Patronage: Unknown; His various appointments, including that with the military, are inconceivable without patronage. 9. Technological Connections: Medical Practioner; 10. Scientific Societies: Académie royale des sciences (Paris); 1667-1673; Medical College (Any One); Provost of the Company of Surgeons in Paris. Collaboration with Jean Pecquet, Claude Perrault, and others on anatomical dissections. SOURCES:
Gellibrand, Henry
1. Dates: Born: London, 17 November 1597; Died: London, 16 February 1636; Datecode: Lifespan: 39 2. Father: Medical Practioner; Henry Gellibrand was a graduate of Oxford and for a time a fellow of All Souls. After 1602 he was a physician in Maidstone, Kent. The father died in 1615. I always assume that physicians were affluent at least. In fact the father left a considerable estate; our Henry was his sole heir. However, a reference below to Henry's small patrimony (which could have been in error, to be sure) leads me to list the family circumstances merely as affluent. It is surely relevant that Gellibrand entered Oxford as a commoner. 3. Nationality: Birth: English; Career: English; Death: English 4. Education: Oxford University, M.A. Oxford University, Trinity College, 1615-23. B.A., 1619. M.A., 1623. 5. Religion: Calvinist; Gellibrand was in holy orders; he held a curacy in Kent before 1623. In 1631, when he published an almanac with definite Puritan hues, Laud attempted to prosecute him. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Navigation; Magnetism; Subordinate Disciplines: Mathematics; Astronomy; Gellibrand discovered the secular change in magnetic declination. He attempted to solve the problem of longitude. His 'Appendix concerning Longitude' in Thomas James, Strange and Dangerous Voyage, 1633, attempted to draw on observable celestial events as a means to establish longitude. His Epitome of Navigation appeared in 1698, long after his death. Gellibrand completed Briggs' Trigonometria britannica, 1633; Institution Trigonometrical, 1638, a text. In 1652 (posthumous) a longer work of tthe same name in Latin, with applications to navigation and astronomy, a work much used in its English translation. He composed 'Astronomia lunaris,' which survived in manuscript. He is reported to have written a Treatise of Building of Ships. 7. Means of Support: Personal Means; Academic; Secondary Means of Support: Church Living; Temporary curacy at Chiddingstone, Kent, 1620s. It is said that Gellibrand settled in Oxford as a young man (by inference after his M.A.) and became there a friend of Henry Briggs. There is no information on how he supported himself in this period. However, the letter from Trinity College, supporting his nomination to be Gresham Professor, spoke of his being satisfied with his small patrimony (I now have doubt that the patrimony was small) in order that the pursuit of preferment not interefere with his studies. Professor of astronomy at Gresham College, 1626-36. 8. Patronage: Sci; Owed the professorship to Henry Briggs. 9. Technological Connections: Navigation; Applied mathematics in navigation 10. Scientific Societies: Informal Connections: A close friend of Henry Briggs; he completed Briggs' unfinished Trigonometria Britannica and published it in 1633. SOURCES:
Gemma Frisius, Reiner [Regner,
Regnier]
1. Dates: Born: Dokkum Netherlands, 8 December 1508; Died: Louvain, Belgium, 25 May 1555; Datecode: - Lifespan: 47 2. Father: Unknown; He lost his parents young. He was of humble origins; not even his surname is known. It is clear that the family was poor. 3. Nationality: Dutch; Belgium Area; Belgium Area; Birth: Dokkum, Netherlands. Career: Louvain, Belgium. Death: Louvain, Belgium. 4. Education: Lou, M.D. He began his studies in Groningen, nearby to Dokkum. 1525, University of Louvain, where he was a member of the Dutch nation. He received his licentiate degree in 1528. 1536, he received his M.D. from Louvain. 5. Religion: undoubtedly Catholic 6. Scientific Disciplines: astronomy, geography, cartography. Subordinate Disciplines: mathematics. His first original work, Gemma phrysius de principiis astronomiae & cosmographiae, was translated into several languages and reprinted numerous times. He made two significant contributions to the earth sciences. In a chapter added to the 1533 Antwerp edition of the Cosmographicus, he was first to propose the principle of triangulation as a means of carefully locating places and accurately mapping areas. 20 years later, in the 1553 Antwerp edition of De princinpiis astronomiae, he was the first suggest in explicit terms the use of portable timepieces to measure longitude by lapsed time. 7. Means of Support: Medicine; Academic; Secondary Means of Support: Pub; He supported himself publishing his books (1529, 1530) and globes (1531, 1535, 1536) while a student in Louvain. Evidently this was lucrative enough that he married before he recieved his degree. 1536, practiced medicine for a living in Louvain. Between 1536-1539 he was appointed to the medical faculty at Louvain, a post he retained until his death. 8. Patronage: Ecclesiastic Official; Court Patronage; John Flaxbinder (Johannes de Curiis Dantiscus), ambassador of the King of Poland, who held a bishop's see in Poland but spent many years in Brussels, was a patron of Gemma's. He was well informed of the recent voyages reported to the court, and Gemma presumably made use of this information in his geography. He is said to have been favored by Charles V. Charles noted an error in Gemma Frisius's Charta sive mappa mundi and brought it to his attention, after which he brought out a new addition dedicated to the Emperor. Gemma Frisius dedicated his globe of 1537 and his world map of 1540 to Charles. 9. Technological Connections: Medicine; Scientific Instruments; Cartography; He did practice medicine for a living for a time. He received a patent with Caspar Vander Heyden [Caspar de Myrica] for a globe in 1531. He produced other globes in 1535 and 1536. Gemma designed astronomical instruments, mostly sophisticated variations on the astrolabe, such as the 'astronomical ring.' He also improved the Jacob's staff. Kish credits Gemma as the first to suggest the use of an accurate timekeeping instrument as a solution to the problem of longitude, and as among the first to propose triangulation for surveying and mapmaking. Gemma Frisius did a world map with lines of latitude and longitude in 1540. 10. Scientific Societies: None; Connections: He taught Gerard Mercator, and in 1535 employed him as a draftsman for his terrestial globe. Connections: John Dee visited Gemma in 1547. He reports returning to England with 'the first Astronomer's staff in brass, that was made of Gemma Frisius' devising' and 'the Astronomer's ring of brass, as Gemma Frisius had newly framed it.' Dee returned to Louvain and stayed, presumably studying under Gemma, from 1548-1550. SOURCES:
Not Available and Not Consulted: Fernand
van Ostroy, 'Biobibliographie de Gemma Frisius, fondateur de l'école
belge de géographie...', Mémoires de l'Académie
royale des sciences... de Belgique, Classe de lettres, 2nd ser., 11
(1920).
Geoffroy, Étienne-François
1. Dates: Born: Paris, 13 February 1672; Died: Paris, 6 January 1731; Datecode: Lifespan: 59 2. Father: Magistrate; Matthieu-François Geoffroy (who has an entry in the DBF), was a wealthy and prominent pharmacist, who had been a Paris alderman (1685) and a consul (whatever that was). Although he was not the royal apothecary, he was once summoned to Versailles by Louis XIV and the Dauphin. The father was the fourth generation of a prominent family of Parisian pharmacists that went back to 1584. I accept the report-wealthy. 3. Nationality: Birth: French; Career: French; Death: French 4. Education: University of Montpellier; University of Paris; M.D. He learned from his father, the fourth in a respected dynasty of pharmacists. Such scientists as Wilhelm Homberg, Joblot, Verney, and J.D.Cassini visited his home, giving demonstrations and lectures that suplemented his education. In 1692 he went to Montpellier for a year as a journeyman to learn pharmacy from Pierre Sanche. Apparently the apothecaries Jeoffroy and Sanche traded sons as assistants. When he was in Montpellier he began to attend courses at the medical school without matriculating. After he retured to Paris in 1694, he became a master apothecary. He later turned to the study of medicine. He earned the bachelor's degree in Paris in 1702, and eventually graduated M.D. at Paris in 1704. 5. Religion: Catholic. His father attended a Jesuit school. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Chemistry; Pharmacology; Codex medicamentarium seu pharmacopoeia parisiensis, published by the Faculty of Medicine in 1732, was largely his work. it contained many chemical remedies, in addition to the traditional galenicals. He read 17 papers to the Académie des Sciences. Many of them are treatises in experimental chemistry. All of his major books are on materia medica. It does not appear that he made any contributions to medical science as distinct from pharmacology. 7. Means of Support: Academic; Personal Means; Government Position; Secondary Means of Support: Pharmacology; Medicine; Patronage; 1694, Master Apothecary and ran the family busines for a few years. He practiced medicine for a few years after his degree. In 1698 he travelled to England as physician to Count de Tallart, Marshal of France. 1699, associate chemist at the Académie, replacing Lémery. 1700, travelled to Italy as 'physician' to Abbé de Louvois. 1704, after receiving his M.D., his personal wealth enabled him not to search for rich patients but to treat rich and poor alike. It it not clear that Geoffroy ever really practiced medicine much, though he may have for a few years abter he graduated. When his father died in 1708, he left Geoffroy a considerable amount of money, further asugmenting his personal means. 1707, demonstrator at the Jardin du Roi. 1709-1731, professor of medicine at the Collège Royal. 1712, lecturer in chemistry at the Jardin du Roi. 1712-1730, professor of chemistry at the Jardin du Roi. 1715, pensionnaire chemist the the Académie. 1726/7-1728/9, dean of the Paris Faculty of Medicine. 8. Patronage: Aristocratic Patronage; Patronage of an Ecclesiatic Official; While still a student he was chosen as medical adviser by the Comte de Tallart, French ambassador extraordinary to England. He became friendly with Hans Sloane in 1698, and was made a fellow of the Royal Society (London); of which Sloane was secretary. I'll leave this information in, but it seems too tenuous to count as patronage. He accompanied the Abbé de Louvois as personal physician. 9. Technological Connections: Medicine; Pharmacology; It is not clear that he ever practiced much, but there do seem to be definite references to some practice. 10. Scientific Societies: Royal Society (London); 1698-1731. Académie royale des sciences (Paris); 1699-1731. He was elected to the Académie royale des sciences (Paris); as the student of Homberg in 1699, became an associate later in 1699, and pensionaire in 1715. SOURCES:
Gerard, John
1. Dates: Born: at or near Nantwich, Cheshire, 1545. Jeffers says c.1545, but others give 1545 neat. Died: London, February 1612; Datecode: Lifespan: 67 2. Father: Unknown; Gerard was apparently connected with the Gerards of Ince, who were armigerous. Nothing is known about his father. No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Birth: English; Career: English; Death: English 4. Education: None Known; A grammar school at Willaston, Cheshire; No university education. Apprenticed to Alexander Mason, a London barber-surgeon with a large practice, 1561-8. 5. Religion: Anglican; By assumption. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Botany; Pharmacology; He published a catalogue of the plants in his garden in 1596, and a second enlarged edition of 1599. Gerard published his famous Herball, 1597, (much of which was plagiarized, according to some accounts, from an unpublished translation of Dodoens Pemptades of 1583), the best known English herbal. Though obviously concerned with medicinal plants, it was not confined to them. 7. Means of Support: Medicine; Patronage; Secondary Means of Support: Org; Surgeon of a merchant ship, 1568-70s. All that is know is that Gerard recorded that he had been in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Poland, and Moscow, and it appears likely that he went there with a ship of the Merchant Adventurers. By 1577 he was married and settled in London with a surgical practice there. In 1577 he was already in the service of Burghley. Superintendent of the gardens belonging to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, at the Strand, London, and at Theobalds, Hertfordshire, 1577-97. Curator of the physic garden belonging to the College of Physicians, 1586-1603. 8. Patronage: Court Patronage; Aristocratic Patronage; Gentry; He was granted a lease of a garden adjoining Somerset House by the queen-consort of James I and became surgeon and herbarist to James I. See the relation with Burleigh above. Gerard dedicated his first book, the catalogue, and the Herball to Burleigh. He dedicated the second edition of his catalogue, 1599, to Sir Walter Raleigh. Note also that he owed his position in Barber-Surgeon's Company to Alexander Mason to whom he was apprenticed for seven years. 9. Technological Connections: Medicine; Pharmacology; 10. Scientific Societies: Medical College (Any One); Informal Connections: Frienship with Lancelot Browne, Guillaume Delaune, Anthony Hunton, Francis Herring and many others. He was acquainted with L'Obel, and he corresponded with Dodoens. Barber-Surgeon's Company, 1569-1612. Court of Assistants, 1595. Junior Warden, 1597-1608. Examiner of candidates for the company, 1598, 1607. Master of the Barber-Surgeon's Company, 1608-1612. SOURCES:
Not Available and Not Consulted: B.D. Jackson,
a life of Gerard in his edition of Gerard, A Catalogue of the
Plants Cultivated in the Garden of John Gerard, (London, 1876).
Gerbezius, Marcus [Marko Gerbec]
1. Dates: Born: St. Vid, near Sticna, Slovenia, 24 October 1658; Died: Ljubljana, Slovenia, 9 March 1718; Datecode: Lifespan: 60 2. Father: No Information. Said to have been of modest means (which I translate as poor. 3. Nationality: Birth: Slovene (which I list as Jugoslav); Career: Slovene; Death: Slovene 4. Education: University of Vienna; University of Padua; University of Bologna; M.D., Ph.D. A government scholarship enabled him to study philosophy at Ljubljana, then medicine in Vienna, Padua, and Bologna. I assume B.A. MD and PhD Bologna 1684. 5. Religion: Catholic 6. Scientific Disciplines: medicine, chemistry; In chemistry, he was concerned with fermentation. 7. Means of Support: Medicine; Government Official; Was city physician in Krain, near Ljubljana and physician to some monasteries. Named chief physician of province of Carniola (in Slovenia). Became most sought-after practitioner in Ljubljana. 8. Patronage: Unknown; The scholarship from the government and those appointments were not gained without patronage. 9. Technological Connections: medical practice 10. Scientific Societies: Lp; formal: 1688 admitted to Academia Leopoldina Naturae Curiosorum. 1701, founding member of Academia Operosorum in Ljubljana (president 1712 -1713). SOURCES:
Not Available and/or Not Consulted: I.
Pintar, 'Dr. Marko Gerbec,' Razprave. Slovenska akademija znanosti in
umetnosti, classis IV, pars medica, 3 (1963), 1 - 40 - contains
a review of biographical literature. N. Flaxman, 'The History of Heart-Block,'
Bulletin
of the Institute of the History of Medicine, 5 (1937), 115-30.
Gesner [Gessner], Konrad
1. Dates: Born: Zürich, 26 March 1516; Died: Zürich, 13 December 1565 Datecode: - Lifespan: 49 2. Father: Artisan; Church Living; His father was Ursus Gessner, whom one source lists as a furrier. He fell at the battle at Kappel (1531). Because his parents had an abundance of children and could not afford to rear him, he was brought up by his great uncle, Hans Frick, chaplain in Zuerich, who himself was of very modest means. Around 1527 he came to stay at the house of Johann Jakob Ammann, Chorherr of the Stift. Ammann could not support Gesner either after 1531. In a word, he grew up in poor financial circumstances. 3. Nationality: Birth: Zuerich, Switzerland. Career: Zuerich, Switzerland. Death: Zuerich, Switzerland. 4. Education: University of Zurich; University of Bourges; University of Paris; University of Montpellier; University of Basel; M.D. Fraumuensterschule, Zuerich. Carolinum, Zuerich. 1533, University of Bourges, studying theology and ancient languages. (This is the only reference I have had to a university at Bourges, but for the time I will list it.); 1534, University of Paris, reading eclectically. He left because of rising anti-Protestant feelings. 1536, University of Basel, studying medicine. 1540, went to Monpellier to study, but left after a few months. 1541, took his exams and received his M.D. at Basel. No record of a B.A. nevertheless, with the M.D. and all the rest, I assume it. 5. Religion: Calvinist (which is how I list Zwinglians); He was a dedicated follower of Zwingli. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Natural History; Botany; Zoology; Pharmacology; Medical Practioner; natural history, botany, zoology. Subordinate Disciplines: pharmacology, medicine. 7. Means of Support: Academic; Church Living; Medical Practioner; Secondary Means of Support: Schoolmaster; Government Official; Pub; 1532, he worked for Wolfgang Capito in Strasbourg as a famulus, a kind of servant. 1533, though he had a stipend, he tutored Melchior Volmar's sons to make ends meet. 1535-1536, taught the lowest class at the elementary school in Zuerich. 1536, to keep his head above water in Basel, he worked for the publisher Heinrich Petri compiling a Greek-Latin dictionary. His success at this job brought him his next position. 1537-1540, first professor of Greek at the Lausanne Academy in Basel. He received the use of a house, an income of 200 gulden, 2 'Mutt.'(?) of grain, and two flagons of wine. This was the most lucrative position he ever held. 1541, he returned to Zuerich. Because all of the chairs at the Carolinum were already filled, he held the position of lecturer in natural philosophy and ethics there. He was overworked and paid a pittance, and as a result he had to work at night writing books to make ends meet. 1546, he was made a professor at the Carolinum, but was still underpaid. 1552, named Poliater, assistant town physician. 1554, named Archiater, chief town physician, with a great responsibilty, but still scant income. 1558, named Chorherr (canonicus). This position finally lifted his financial burden. 8. Patronage: City Magistrate; Aristocratic Patronage; Court Patronage; Patronage of an Ecclesiatic Official; One of his earliest patrons was Johann Jakob Ammann, a teacher of Gesner's at the Carolinum with whom he lived for a few years. Gesner dedicated his first major work, the Catalogus plantarum (1542) to him. Another early patron was Zwingli himself, to whom Gesner appealed for a stipend at the age of fourteen. Zwingli granted the request, but the stipend was lost in the confusion after Zwingli's death at the battle at Kappel (1531). A third patron from this period was Oswald Myconius, head of the Grossmuensterschule. He recommended Gesner to Capito (see 7a). Gesner continued to correspond with him after Myconius moved to Basel, and Myconius was instrumental in delivering Gesner from his first teaching position by writing to Ammann and Bullinger. Thereafter, Gesner received a stipend to study medicine in Basel. Heinrich Bullinger, Zwingli's successor, was a lifelong patron of Genser. With Conrad Pellican, a professor at Zuerich, he arranged a travel grant to support Gesner's trip to Bourges and Paris. Gesner appealed to Bullinger throughout his life at various time for help (e.g. 1536, 1558), and Bullinger eventually arranged for his appointment as canonicus. The school, church, and city in Zuerich held sway over Gesner in a way I do not fully understand. His first teaching position is seen as a punishment by the city for marrying a woman without any means without its permission. During the summer of 1544, Gesner stayed at the house of his friend Diego Hurtado di Mendoza, a Spanish count, and had access to his exceptional libray. Gesner dedicated the second edition of his dictionary (1544) to him. Though Gesner was a prolific writer, not all of his dedications are to patrons. However, one that defininitely was fishing for support was the dedication of Ambrosii Calepini dictionarium linguae latinae (1544) to the leading citizen of Zurich Wilhelm Meyer von Knonau. If anything came of this, I did not run across it. Made famous by his pioneering bibliography, Bibliotheca universalis, Gesner was sought by the Catholic Count Johann Jakob Fugger in Augsburg (1545) to be a teacher to his sons and grandsons and to help set up his library. The position promised to be well-paid and to enable Gesner to do his own work, but after visiting Fugger he turned the job down out of love for Zuerich, gratitude to Bullinger, and religious differences. At the suggestion of the Royal physicians Julius Alexandrinus and Stephan Laurenz Amerfort Gesner dedicated his work on fish and water animals (1558) to Emperor Ferdinand I, who had just been elected. Ferdinand had expressed to his physicians the desire to meet Gesner. After the dedication, Gesner was invited to a meeting of the Reichstag in 1559, where he met privately with the Emperor for over an hour. At the instigation of Alexandrinus, Amerfort, and Crato von Krafftheim, Gesner was granted a coat of arms in 1564. Gesner tried to get in contact with King Maximilian (1527-1576), who seemed more sympathetic to Protestantism, but he tried to do this through the conman and adventurer Paul Skalic and was not successful. Andreas Szadkowski, a Polish writer on salt mines, was a small time patron. He gave Gesner an amount of money, and dedicated his De rerum fossilium (1565) to Gesner. 9. Technological Connections: med; Gesner held a position as town physician, but the extent to which he actually treated individual patients is not clear. 10. Scientific Societies: None; Because of his pioneering bibliographic work and his collection of descriptions of animals and plants, Gesner was at the center of a circle of correspondents that included most of the learned men of Europe. The scholars who contributed to the Catalogus plantarum and the Historia animalium are listed at the beginning of those volumes. SOURCES:
Not Available and/or Not Consulted: W.
University of Leiden; K. Gesner, Leben und Werk, (Munich, 1929).
K. Müller, Der polyhistor Konrad Gesner als Freund und Forderer
erdkundlicher Studien, (doct. diss., Munich, 1912). H. Günther,
'K. Gesner als Tierarzt', (thesis, Leipzig, 1933). H. Hanhart, Konrad
Gessner, (Winterthur, 1824). Robert Lauterborn, 'Konrad Gessner und
die Tierkunde,' in Der Rhein, (Freiburg, 1930), 1, 136-8.
One source called this perhaps the best exposition of Gesner as zoologist.
Alfredo Serrai, Conrad Gesner, ed. Maria Cochetti, (Rome, 1990).
NDB mentions many other sources.
Ghetaldi [Ghettaldi], Marino
1. Dates: Born: Ragusa (Dubrovnik), c. 1566; Died: Ragusa, 11 April 1627 (I follow Favaro; DSB and Wieleitner say 1626); Datecode: Both Birth & Death Dates Uncertain Lifespan: 61 2. Father: Aristocrat; Matteo Ghetaldi was from a patrician family originally from Taranto, Italy. On all of his books of which I have seen the full title cited, Ghetaldi styled himself a patrician of Ragusa. From the pattern of Ghetaldi's life, the family had to have been affluent at the least. 3. Nationality: Birth: Yu (I leave this designation, but it does seem misleading to me. The family was Italian, and I gather that the city, or at least its ruling class, was essentially Italian at that time.); Career: Yu; Death: Yu 4. Education: None Known; As a young man, after his education in Ragusa, he moved to Rome and then traveled extensively (six years) through Europe. In Rome he came under the influence of Christopher Clavius. He then went to Antwerp to study with Michel Coignet. Thence he moved to Paris, where he associated with Viète. He was in England for two years. There is no mention of a degree, nor would one have been relevant to a patrician. 5. Religion: Catholic. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Mathematics; Subordinate Disciplines: Physics; Optics; He produced a pamphlet with the solutions of 42 geometrical problems, Variorum problematum colletio, in 1607. The method used in some of the solutions suggests that he was alreasy applying methods of algebra to geometry. His other publications were studies on Archimedes and on Apollonius. He did experimental work on the specific gravity of solids and liquids. He apparently experimented with burning glasses. 7. Means of Support: Personal Means; Magistrate; For a number of years he lived the peripatetic life of a scholar, obviously in no need to concern himself with earning a living. During this time he was offered a chair at the University of Louvain, but he did not accept. From 1603 he held various public and legal positions in Ragusa. I am assuming that some of these positions carried salaries. 8. Patronage: Scientist; Aristocratic Patronage; Patronage of an Ecclesiatic Official; Ghetaldi dedicated his first work to Clavius and another to Marino Gozze, his companion on his youthful wandering. Frankly neither of these sound like patronage given the realities of Ghetaldi's station. Viète permitted Ghetaldi to oversee the publication of De potestatum resolutione, c. 1600. Ghetaldi was then aspiring to a name in mathematics, and this relation does sound like patronage, though of course not monetary. He dedicated a work on Apollonius to Paolo Emilio Cesi, a distant cousin (also an aristocrat) of Federico Cesi. He dedicated other mathematical works to Card. Serafino Olivier and to Pope Paul V. 9. Technological Connections: None Known; 10. Scientific Societies: He was friendly with Sarpi in Padua, and he knew Galileo. In 1621 his name was included in a list of scientists proposed for membership in the Accademia dei Lincei. He was not nominated because he returned to Ragusa, and the Academy did not know his whereabouts. SOURCES:
Not Available and Not Consulted: G. Barbieri,
'Marino Ghetaldi,' in Pietro F. Martecchini, Galleria di Ragusei illustri,
(Ragusa, 1840). Ab. Simeone Gliubich [Sime Ljubie], Dizionaria biografico
degli uomini illustri della Dalmatia, (Vienna, 1856), pp. 142-3. E.
Gelcich, 'Eine Studie über die Entstehung der Analytischen Geometrie
mit Berücksichtigung eines Werkes des Marino Ghetaldi Patrizier Ragusaer.
Aus dem Jahre 1630,' Abhandlungen zur Geschichte des Mathematick, 4
(1882), 191-231.
Ghini, Luca
1. Dates: Born: Imola, c. 1490; Died: Bologna, 4 May 1556; Datecode: Birth Date Uncertain; Lifespan: 66 2. Father: Law; His father was a notary in Imola. No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Birth: Italian; Career: Italian; Death: Italian 4. Education: University of Bologna; M.D. He studied medicine at Bologna, earning an M.D. in 1527. I assume a B.A. or its equivalent. 5. Religion: Catholic. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Botany; Pharmacology; Subordinate Disciplines: Medicine; Natural History; The pioneer in the creation of the first botanical gardens (in Pisa in 1543 and, after a second was created in Padua, in Florence in 1545) in the 16th century and in the collection of the earliest herbaria (both of which explicitly served the ends of pharmacology), Ghini exerted his influence primarily through correspondence and teaching. His only published works-and those long after his death-were minor medical tracts. Much more important is the letter to Mattioli, published as I placiti di Luca Ghini intorno a piante descritte nei commentarii al Dioscoride di P.A.Mattioli. Ghini also collected in natural history in general-minerals and animals. 7. Means of Support: Academic; Medicine; Patronage; Secondary Means of Support: Government Position; He was appointed to read 'medicina practica' at the University of Bologna in 1527, became lecturer on Simples in 1535. In 1537 he began to hold an associate chair on simples, and a professorial chair in 1539. From 1544 to 1554 he was professor of simples at Pisa, and he returned to lecture at Bologna in 1554. Ghini founded the Botanical Garden (Orta dei semplici) in Pisa in 1544-the first academic botanical garden and the first establishment of an institution for research and teaching. He is described as a highly regarded physician. Around 1536 he was a municipal physician in Fano with a stipend of 225 florins-a position held contemporaneously with his chair at Bologna. It is not known how long this appointment lasted. While Ghini was in Pisa, Cosimo, who presumably had this partly in mind when he sought out Ghini and appointed him, utilized him as his physician. 8. Patronage: Court Patronage; 9. Technological Connections: Scientific Instruments; Medicine; Pharmacology; He was actively involved in the creation of botanical gardens at Pisa and at Florence. He introduced, probably for the first time, the herbarium or hortus siccus, the technique of pressing and drying plants. Although there is obvious ambiguity, the technique of drying seems essentially identical to the creation of a new instrument. 10. Scientific Societies: Ghini was the teacher of Cesalpino, Aldrovandi, Mattioli, Anguillara, Merini, Odoni, Calzolari, Michiel, and Maranta. The botanical garden that he created in Pisa can be properly regarded as the first institution for scientific research and teaching. He corresponded with Aldrovandi. De Toni published five of his letters to Aldrovandi (Padua 1905). SOURCES:
Not Available and/or Not Consulted: R.
Savelli, 'A l'occasione du 4e centenaire de la mort de Luca
Ghini,' in VIIIe congrès internationale d'histoire
des sciences, (Florence, 1956). G.B. De Toni, 'I placiti di Luca Ghini
(primo lettore di semplici in Bologna) intorno a piante descritte nei commentiarii
al Dioscoride di P.A. Mattioli,' Memorie de R. Istituto veneto di scienze,
lettere ed arti, 27 (1907). O. Mattirolo, 'Luca Ghini,' in Encl.
italiani,
16 (1952), 916.
Gilbert [Gilberd], William
1. Dates: Born: Colchester, 1544. Until this century, Gilbert's birth was universally placed in 1540. 1544 has now been established on good evidence. Died: probably London, 30 November 1603; Datecode: Lifespan: 59 2. Father: Magistrate; Jerome Gilbert was the recorder of Colchester. One source listed him as a merchant. Clearly his own forebears were merchants and made a fortune at it. None of the good sources says a word about Jerome Gilbert being a merchant. Evidently prosperous. 3. Nationality: Birth: English; Career: English; Death: Englsih 4. Education: Cambridge University, M.A., M.D. St. John College, Cambridge, 1558-69 or 70; B.A., 1561; M.A., 1564; M.D., 1569. 5. Religion: Anglican; By assumption. He was buried in an Anglican church in Colchester. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Magnetism; Subordinate Disciplines: Electricity; Natural Philosophy; De magnete, 1600, is the enduring basis of Gilbert's fame. Posthumously, De mundo nostro sublunari philosophia nova was published in 1651. This is really two works put together as one from Gilbert's manuscripts by Gilbert's half brother; he himself never intended them as parts of one book. More than De magnete, the two treatises that make up De mundo strove toward a general natural philosophy. 7. Means of Support: Medicine; Secondary Means of Support: Academic; Personal Means; Patronage; At Cambridge he became a Junior Fellow of St. Johns in 1561. He was the mathematics examiner in the college, 1565-6 and bursar, 1569-70. He became a Senior Fellow in 1569. Nothing is known about his activities from 1569 (or 70) until the mid or late 70s. There is good evidence that De magnete was completed quite a few years before it was published, and possibly Gilbert devoted these unknown years to his magnetical research. Something would have had to support him. He is known to have inherited property from his father, and it is possible that he inherited Wingfield House, his residence in London, from his step-mother (a Wingfield), sometime before 1583. Medical practice, from perhaps 1577 to 1603. He was one of the prominent physicians in London, consulted among others by the aristocracy. One of the personal physicians to Elizabeth I, 1600-03. He received a persion of L100 (which is hard to distinguish from a salary) from the Queen. Note that this relation to the court came only near the end of Gilbert's life. Physician to James I, 1603. 8. Patronage: Court Patronage; He obtained his grant of arms from Elizabeth in 1577. He was appointed physician to Elizabeth in 1600 and kept the position until Elizabeth died. After the death of Elizabeth he became James I's physician and held the position until his own death. Note that Gilbert, a promient and probably wealthy physician, did not dedicate De magnete to anyone. On the contrary, it is dedicated to Gilbert by Edward Wright, who wrote the dedicatory epistle. 9. Technological Connnections: Medicine; Pharmacology; Navigation; Instruments; He participated in the compilation of the College of Physicians' Pharmacopoeia. He specifically proposed the use of magnetic declination and dip to determine longitude and latitude. Thomas Blundevelle describes the two instruments of Gilbert's invention intended for these purposes. The Versorium for magnetic investigations, and a similar device for electrical. I considered briefly adding Cartography to this list because Gilbert did prepare a map of the moon (in De mundo). However, recall that this was before the telescope. I have seen the map. It is more a sketch than a map, and does not involve any of the skills of cartography. 10. Scientific Societies: Medical College (Any One); Informal Connections: He knew Thomas Wright and William Barlowe. The older literature on Gilbert abounds in stories of a proto-society that met in his home, Wingfield House. This has been shown to rest on no solid evidence whatever. The older literature also credits him with correspondence with Giovanfrancesco Sagredo (Galileo's friend and patron) and Paolo Sarpi. These correspondences are likewise figments of the imagination. Royal College of Physicians, before 1581; Censor, 1581, 1582, 1584-87, 1589-90; Treasurer, 1587-94, 1597-99; Elector, 1596-97; Consilarius, 1597-9; President, 1600. SOURCES:
Not Available and/or Not Consulted: Charles
Singer, 'Dr. William Gilbert,' Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service,
October 1916. Richard H. Jarrell, 'The Latest Date of Composition of Gilbert's
De
mundo,' Isis, 63 (1972), 94-5. There is a surprising dearth
of information about this prominent scientist.
Girard, Albert
1. Dates: Born: St. Mihiel, France, c. 1595; Died: 's Gravenhage, 8 December 1632 (Bosmans and Vosterman make it 1633); Datecode: Both Birth & Death Dates Uncertain Lifespan: 37; 2. Father: No Information; No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Birth: French; Career: Dutch; Death: Dutch; The first solid information about him shows him settled in the Netherlands 4. Education: Leiden; De Waard states that he inscribed himself in Leiden on 28 April 1617 as a student of mathematics. No. B.A. 5. Religion: Calvinist. It appears that he fled to the Netherlands as a religious refugee. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Mathematics, Engineering. Subordinate Disciplines: Optics, Music; He published extensively on mathematics. He translated a treatise on fortification from Flemish into French, and Marolois's treatise on fortification from French into Flemish. He worked on the law of refraction. He mentioned a completed work on music, although it was never published. 7. Means of Support: Music; Engineer; Originally he was a musician, specifically a lute player. Gassendi mentioned him, in a letter, as an engineer with the Dutch army. De Waard ways that this could not have been before about 1626. His grave marker called him an engineer. De Waard cites a passage from Girard's edition of Stevin in which he complained of being in a foreign country without a maecenas and burdened with a family. He said that he had to postpone the publication of his mathematics until a time when the pursuit of the sciences would be more highly esteemed than it was at that time. 8. Patronage: Court; Despite his complaint of living in a foreign country without a patron, he dedicated his edition of Stevin's Arithmetic (I have 1625) to Prince Maurice and his translation of Marolois's Fortification (1627) to Prince Frederik Hendrik. 9. Technological Connections: Military Engineer; Cartography; 10. Scientific Societies: He appears to have had informal contact with the circle of Dutch mathematical scientists. Thus his edition of Stevin. He was a friend of Snel. SOURCES:
Glanvill, Joseph
1. Dates: Born: Plymouth, 1636; Died: Bath, 4 November 1680; Datecode: Lifespan: 44 2. Father: Merchant; Glanvill was the third son of Nicholas Glanvill, a merchant in Plymouth. No clear information on financial status. Glanvill went to Oxford as a battelar, a status above that of servitor, but I do not find this sufficient information for any judgment. 3. Nationality: Birth: English; Career: English; Death: Englsih 4. Educaton: Oxford University, M.A. Oxford University, Exeter College, 1652-6; B.A., 1655. Lincoln College, 1656-8; M.A., 1658. 5. Religion: Anglican; Glanville was reared in a strict Puritan household. Apparently student years at Oxford freed him from this. It is hard to be sure just how far Glanvill operated from principle and how far from expediency. At any rate, he was ordained in 1660 and became an articulate defender of Latitudinarian Anglicanism. It appears that he was an Anglican throughout his whole adult life; I do not list the Puritan phase. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Natural Philosophy; Subordinate Disciplines: Natural History; Glanville made a couple of minor contributions to natural history, about the mines and medicinal springs near Bath, in response to general enquiries about natural history published in the Philosophical Transactions. His major work was in such books as Vanity of Dogmatizing, 1660, Scepsis scientifica (a later version of Vanity), 1664, and Plus Ultra, 1668, all defenses of the new natural philosophy, especially of experimental philosophy, against its detractors. Apparently all of his works are vocally hostile toward Scholastic philosophy. Scepsis closes with a 'Letter to a Friend, concerning Aristotle,' an articulate expression of the age's turning away from Aristotle. Philosophia pia; or, A Discourse of the Religious Temper and Tendencies of the Experimental Philosophy, 1671. 7. Means of Support: Church Living; Secondary Means of Support: Patronage; Glanvill was chaplain to Francis Rous, one of Cromwell's lords, 1658-9 (when Rouse died). Rector of Wimbish, Essex, 1660-2. Vicar of Frome Selwood, Somerstershire, 1662-72. Rector of the Abbey Church at Bath, 1666-80. After 1666 Bath appears to have been Glanvill's seat. But note that he always held a second benefice at the same time. Rector of the Streat and Walton, 1672-80. In 1672 he exchanged Frome Selwood for Streat and Walton. Chaplain in ordinary to Charles II, 1672-80. Received a prebend at Worcester, 1678. 8. Patronage: Court Patronage; Aristocratic Patronage; Gentry; Patronage of an Ecclesiatic Official; Glanvill came from fairly modest beginnings, and he was clearly on the make. He was forward in introducing himself to prominent people such as Richard Baxter, Robert Boyle, and the Duchess of Newcastle. He was profuse in the use of dedications. When he died, he left a goodly inheritance. Invited by Francis Rous, one of Cromwell's lords and provost of Eton College, to live with him as his chaplain, from 1658 until Rous' death in 1659. His brother, a prosperous merchant purchased the rectory of Wimbish for him in 1660. Despite the obvious analogies with patronage, I will not list this. He dedicated Vanity of Dogmatizing to Joseph Maynard, Fellow and later Rector of Exeter College. Their connection is unknown, and Maynard did not reappear in Glanvill's later life. Presented to the vicarage of Frome Selwood in 1662 by Sir James Thynne, and later to Streat and Walton. I am not aware that he dedicated anything to Thynne. He dedicated Lux orientalis, 1662, to Francis Willughby, Esq. I am pretty sure this is John Ray's patron. He dedicated Scepsis scientifica to the Royal Society. Lord Breneton read the dedication to the society at the meeting of 7 December 1664 and proposed Glanville for membership at that time,; Dedicated Plus ultra, 1668, to William Pierce, Bishop of Bath and Wells. Dedicated 'An Account of the Nature of a Spirit' (part of A Blow at Modern Sadducism) to Charles, Duke of Richmond and Lennox. Dedicated A Prefatory Anser to Mr. Henry Stubbe, 1671, to Francis Godolphin. Dedicated Philosophia pia, 1671, to Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury. Appointed chaplain in ordinary by Charles II, 1672. Through the influence of the Marquis of Worcestor, to whom he was related by marraige, he received the prebend in Worcester. Glanville had dedicated books (Essays on Several Important Subjects, 1676, and a set of four sermons, 1678) to both the Marquis and the Marchioness shortly before this. 9. Technological Connections: None Known; 10. Scientific Societies: Royal Society (London); Informal Connections: Frequent correspondence with Richard Baxter, Boyle and Henry More from 1661. With Henry More he formed a virtual association for psychical research. Successfully traced the important missing manuscripts of Samuel Foster. Royal Society, 1664-80. Secretary of a Somerset affiliate established in 1669 (and I think stillborn almost immediately). SOURCES:
Not Available and/or Not Consulted: Moody
E. Prior, 'Joseph Glanvill, Witchcraft, and Seventeenth-Century Science,'
Modern
Philology, 30 (1932), 167-93.
Glaser, Christopher
1. Dates: Born: Basel ca. 1615 (Contant say he was born on 27 January 1628.); Died: Paris (possibly Basel), 1672 [or 1678] (Contant summarily rejects the story that he survived 1672 and died later back in Basel.); Datecode: Both Birth & Death Dates Uncertain Lifespan: 57 (I have accepted Contant on the death because it sounds reasonable; I have stuck with the earlier birth because Contant offers nothing but the assertion.) 2. Father: No Information; No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Swiss; France; Swiss; Birth: Basel, Switzerland. Career: Paris, France. Death: Paris, France, (or Basel, Switzerland) 4. Education: None Known; He seems to have been trained in Basel as an apothecary. According to Partington, he graduated in medicine at Basel. And according to de Milt and Neville, he took degrees in pharmacy and medicine in about 1643. (But surely no university gave a degree in pharmacy in the 17th century.) Contant says nothing about university education and treats Glaser as an apothecary. The first-hand accounts of mines in his work suggest that he travelled in eastern Europe, as far as Transylvania and Hungary, to observe mining practice. 5. Religion: from his career, I assume Catholic. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Chemistry; Iatrochemistry; Pharmacology; . Glaser's work falls between that of LeFevre and Lemery. Whereas LeFevre drew on a Paracelsian-Helmontian tradition and Lemery on on the corpuscularian, Glaser largely eschewed theory, mostly reciting chemical recipes. However, his Traité was extremely popular in iatrochemical circles. Though his approach is very different from alchemists and some iatrochemists, and he was severely pratical, he was plainly an iatrochemist. 7. Means of Support: Pharmacology; Patronage; Secondary Means of Support: Academic; About 1658, he settled in Paris, opened an apothecary's shop in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and prospered. He was apothecary in ordinary to Louis XIV and his brother the Duke of Orleans. 1660 - c. 1672, demonstrator in chemistry at the Jardin du Roi (suceeding Le Fevre), advancing to professor (year unknown). 1672, he disappeared from public life, hence the uncertainty in the year of his death. According to one source, he returned to Basel, where he practiced medicine and surgery until his death in 1678. 8. Patronage: Court Patronage; Government Official; Medical Practioner; De Milt suggests that some official must have protected his shop (see 7 above) because edicts prohibited the operation of furnaces without the permission of the king, verified by civil authorities, but this would have been a formality because the operation of furnaces was, in fact, encouraged. Antoine Vallot, professor of chemistry at the Jardin du Roi, but more importantly an influential court physician in charge of the Jardin, was an important patron. He was responsible for Glaser's appoinments as apothecary-in-ordinary to Louis XIV and the Duke of Orleans. The second edition of Glaser's Traité de la chymie (1667) is dedicated to Vallot. De Milt suggests that Fagon (who became an influential court physician), sent by Vallot to the botanical gardens of Europe in 1658, was responsible for Glaser's settling in Paris. Another patron was Nicolas Fouquet, the ill-fated superintendent of finances. Contant says that one of the customer's in Glaser's apothecary shop was the mother of Fouquet and that through her Glaser gained Fouquet's protection. Fouquet in turn recommended him to Vallot at the Jardin du Roi. With this support he became apothecary to the Duke of Orleans and to the king, and when Le Febvre left he got the post at the Jardin. In 1672, he was implicated in the Brinvilliers poison case. The marquise de Brinvilliers, with her accomplice Gaudin de Sainte-Croix, used a recipe of Glaser's to make the poison with which they killed the marquise's father (1666) and two brothers (1669 & 1670). After a short stay in the Bastille, until it was determined that Glaser did not know how the white arsenic he sold Saint-Croix was to be used, Glaser disappeared from public life. At her interrogation in 1676, the marquise confirmed that Glaser had prepared the poison for Sainte-Croix. 9. Technological Connections: Pharmacology; He supported himself with his apothecary shop. 10. Scientific Societies: None. His most noted pupil was Nicolas Lemery. SOURCES:
Not Available and Not Consulted: Christopher
Glaser, Neu-eröffnete chymische Artzney- und Werck-Schul, ed.
Hans-Joachim Poeckern, (Weinheim: VCH, 1988).
Glaser, Johann Heinrich
1. Dates: Born: Basel, 6 October 1629; Died: Basel, 5 February 1679 Datecode: - Lifespan: 50 2. Father: artisan; His father had acquired a sound reputation as a painter and engraver in Basel. No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Swiss; Swiss; Sw. Birth: Basel, Switzerland. Career: Basel, Switzerland. Death: Basel, Switzerland. 4. Education: University of Basel; M.D. University of Geneva. He began his studies in Basel. He seems in 1645 to have been committed to philosophy. I take the fact that he wrote a dissertaion in philosophy in 1648 as evidence for a B.A. 1648, he went to Geneva to study medicine. He wrote a dissertaion in 1650. 1661, he presented Disputatio de rheumatismo as his doctoral dissertation in Basel. 5. Religion: Calvinist (assumed) 6. Scientific Disciplines: Anatomy; Medical Practioner; 7. Means of Support: Medicine; Academic; Secondary Means of Support: Government Position; He practiced medicine for a time in Heidelberg. Afterward, he moved to Paris. 1661, he returned to Basel. 1662, he established a medical practice that soon brought him international fame. 1665, he became full professor of Greek. 1667, he was named professor of anatomy and botany at the Faculté de Médecine at Basel. He was named doctor-in-chief at a large municipal hospital in Basel. 8. Patronage: unknown, but academic appointment indicates it. 9. Technological Connections: med; He was a successful physician. 10. Scientific Societies: None. SOURCES:
Not Consulted: H. Buess, Recherches,
découveries et inventions de médecins suisses, E. Kaech,
trans. (Basel 1946). A. Burckhardt, Geschichte des medizinischen Fakultät
zu Basel (Basel, 1917). F. Husner, Verzeichnis der Basler medizinischen
Universitätsschriften von 1575 - 1829 (Basel, 1942). Franciscus
Pariz, Sancta merx viri nobilissimi J. Henrici Glaseri (Basel, 1675).
Glauber, Johann Rudolf
1. Dates: Born: Karlstadt, 1604; Died: Amsterdam, 10 March 1670 Datecode: - Lifespan: 66 2. Father: Miscellaneous; He was the son of a barber, Rudolf Glauber of Hundsbach. I list this under Miscellaneous. No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Germany; Dutch;and Germany; Dutch; Birth: Karlstadt, Germany. Career: Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Germany. Death: Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 4. Education: None Known; He began his education at the Latin school in Karlstadt, but did not finish. He probably also worked at the Mohren-Apotheke. 1626-1632: He did not attend a university, but set out in quest of spagyric wisdom, visiting laboratories in Paris, Basel, Salzburg (1626), and Vienna (1625/26). 5. Religion: Catholic. He was born a Catholic, but argued that men would be judged by their deeds rather than by the idiosyncracies of a particular sect. He was more at ease in religiously tolerant Amsterdam. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Chemistry; Alchemy; Iatrochemstry. Pharmacology; Metallurgy; chemistry, alchemy, Iatrochemistry. Subordinate Disciplines: pharmacology, metallurgy 7. Means of Support: Artisan; Pharmacology; Secondary Means of Support: Patronage; 1632, he earned his living by casting metallic mirrors. 1635, worked at the court apothecary in Giessen. He received 9 gulden for the work he did for the Prince's apothecary in 1635, and he received a salary for 3/4 for the year 1636. This and most other court connections seem too low level to be considered patronage; I list it under artisan. However, he did have one relation with Ferdinand II which sounds like patronage. 1636-1639, after leaving Giessen, he went to Frankfurt, and then probably went to work for the Landgrave of Hessen-Darmstadt in Bonn. 1640, he left Germany to settle in Amsterdam. 1644, back in Giessen, again as the court apothecary, where some sources say he was now in charge. Gubel is of the opinion that he only worked there. 1645, the upheaval of the thirty-years war forced him to leave. 1646, he returned to Amsterdam and bought a large house for which he had to pay annual property tax of 1000 gulden (which seems an enormous amount). He produced and sold drugs, which inspires some to call him the world's first industrial chemist. Nevertheless, in 1650 he experienced bankruptcy, and, facing a suit of 10,000 gulden, fled to Germany. 1651, he settled in Wertheim and began experiments in wine improvement, probably also continuing other alchemical experiments. 1652, after being evicted (the house was needed by the new owner), he moved to Kitzingen, where, surprisingly, he bought a large house with cash. He maintained a medical practice of sorts, dispensing primarily antimony-containing medicines free of charge. He received some income by 'licensing' his alchemical secrets to other practioners. For example, he sold a Dr. Otto Sperling his method of wine preparation for 400 Reichstaler for the regions of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. If Sperling were to use the technique in France, England, or Germany, he was subject to a fine of 1000 Reichstaler. He also entered into a partnership with Christoph Farner of Loechgau (1652/3) which disolved with much acrimony (1655). 1654, he left Kitzingen. Thereafter he travelled to Frankfurt, Rothenberg o.T., and Nuremberg. He also planned to travel to Regensburg where, he writes, he was to be enobled by Ferdinand III, but he did not make this trip. His travelling household at this time numbered 15 (I believe this consisted of his wife, 8 children, and 6 assistants). 1656, he left Germany to return to Amsterdam, where he outfitted 'surely the most impressive laboratory in Europe' (D.S.B.). He settled in a large house on the Keysersgracht, which cost 400-500 taler yearly rent. There he lodged his 8 children and 5-6 assistants. In 1660, he was hit by a paralysis which confined to bed for 2 months. 1666, a fall from a wagon kept him bedridden for the rest of his life. Gradually, he had to let his assistants go and sold off the bulk of his equipment and books in 1668. 8. Patronage: Court Patronage; Ecclesiastic Official; 1625/26: Glauber was in the imperial court in Vienna-Neustadt. Ferdinand II supported alchemists, and Glauber entered this circle through his acquaintance with Sendivogius. One can see a direct indication of favor towards Glauber in that he was allowed to remain in Vienna-Neustadt in violation of the anti-plague laws enacted in 1625 which prohibited foreigners from staying there, even though he was very ill at the time. Glauber claimed that he was to have been enobled by Ferdinand's son in 1654. It should be noted that some patronage was possibly involved in his position as court apothecary in Giessen. 1654, he presented his lord, Wuertzberg Princebishop Johann Philipp von Schoenborn, elector and archbishop of Mainz, with his method of Tartar fabrication in return for a privilege granted him in 1652. There seems little justification for the view that Glauber refused patronage. He clearly had several patrons in Germany. In Amsterdam, however, he does not seem to have had one and thus perhaps one can conclude that by the end of his life he had wearied of them. It may be the case that he did not depend on his patrons for financial support, as he lived primarily from the income generated by his chemical production. 9. Technological Connections: Pharmacology; Agriculture; Chemistry; He made medications, and even set aside an hour each day to administer free medicines. These medications were evidently antimony-based and, as far as I can tell, did constitute a new and different direction in pharmacology. He made his living in the wine industry for a time, and later, in his Dess Teutschlands-Wohlfahrt (1656-1661), he advocated the export of wine and beer, giving recipes for concentrates that are stable and easily exported. This is only one in series of improvements in cottage industries that Glauber thought would improve German trade and aid in the recovery from the thirty-years war. He also wrote a tract in the interest of the Dutch East India Company called 'Trost der Seefahrenden oder Consolatio Navigantium' which contains methods for concentrating and preserving rations, medicines against scurvy, and preparation of fresh from salt water. He did experiments growing crops with artificial fertilizer (tartar chemically derived from wine) in soil brought from the most infertile part of the beach, and he had several experimental plots at his laboratory at Amsterdam where he studied the effects on crops of various treatments. In Amsterdam, he supported himself with the sale of his chemical products. I do not know how many of these were non-pharmaceutical, but I thought it ought to be put down as useful application of scientific knowledge. Spronsen insists on the importance of Glauber as an industrial chemist, who was able to produce a range of chemicals in commercial quantities, and in fact did so. (I need to say that I am skeptical of this, but I need to record it.) Spronsen includes explosives among the chemicals he produced. 10. Scientific Societies: None. SOURCES:
Glisson, Francis
1. Dates: Born: apparently Rampisham, Dorset, c.1597. I will note that the entry record at Gonville and Caius lists his age as 18 when he was enrolled on 28 June 1617. This one piece of evidence would indicate 1598 or 99. Died: London, 16 October 1677; Datecode: Birth Date Uncertain; Lifespan: 80 2. Father: Unknown; All we know is that William Glisson was called a 'Gentleman' on Glisson's matriculation record at Cambridge. No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Birth: English; Career: English; Death: English 4. Educaton: Cambridge University, M.A., M.D. Cambridge University, Gonville and Caius College, 1617-34; B.A., 1621; M.A., 1624; incorporated M.A. at Oxford, 1627; M.D., 1634. 5. Religion: Anglican; By assumption. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Medicine; Anatomy; Pharmacology; Subordinate Disciplines: Embryology; Natural Philosophy; De rachitide, 1650, was a classic on rickets. Anatomia hepatis, 1654, contains, inter alia, the description of Glisson's capsule. Tractatus de natura substantiae energetica, 1672, expounds a theory of natural philosophy that all bodies have life. Tractatis de ventriculo et intestines, 1677, contains a physiological theory based on a succus nutritus distributed by the nerves, and psychic spirits that the succus carries. It asserts the existence of a general property of irritability in all living parts of the body. It is also a general work on the anatomy and pysiology of digestion. This work also discusses embryogenesis. 7. Means of Support: Academic; Medicine; Secondary Means of Support: Org; Junior Fellow of Caius, 1624-9; Greek lecturer, 1625-6; Dean, 1629; Senior Fellow, 1629-34. Regius Professor of Physic, 1636-77. As nearly as I can make out, Glisson ceased to be resident in Cambridge shortly before his appointment to the Regius chair. Only in 1675 did he appoint a deputy. His whereabout and activities during the following fifteen years are uncertain. Older account have him in Cambridge until 1640 and then in a medical practice in Colchester, 1640-50. However, he was Reader in Anatomy at the Royal College of Physicians in 1639 (which I assume was a paid position) and delivered the Gulstonian Lecture before the College in 1640. It appears highly likely that he set up practice in London about 1635 (when he was admitted to the College) and that he remained there. Note that both the account of the origin of the book on rickets and Wallis' recollections of the 'invisible college' place Glisson in London in the mid 40s. Medical practice in London, from 1650 at the latest until 1677 (note that he held on to the chair in Cambridge at the same time-which was not uncommon). 8. Patronage: Aristocratic Patronage; He was physician to Anthony Ashley, Earl of Shaftesbury, and his family for several years. He dedicated De natura substantiae, 1672, to Ashley for his patronage and asistance in several difficulties Glisson had met with. 9. Technological Connections: Medicine; 10. Scientific Societies: Royal Society (London); Medical College (Any One); Informal Connections: Glisson was one of the group in the so-called Invisible College, the original gathering in London during the 40s seen as the beginning of the Royal Society. Friendship with Wharton and George Ent. Association with G. Bate and A. Regemorte. Royal Society, 1660-77. Royal College of Physicians, 1635-77; Reader in Anatomy, 1639; Gulstonian lecturer, 1640; Councilor, 1666; President, 1667-9. SOURCES:
Not Available and Not Consulted: Thomas
Birch, The History of Royal Society of London, 3, 356-7.
R. Milnes Walker, 'Francis Glisson and his Capsule,' Annals of the Royal
College of Surgeons, 38 (1966), 71-91. Charles Gillispie, 'Physick
and Philosophy: a Study of the Influence of the College of Physicians of
London upon the Foundation of the Royal Society,' Journal of Modern
History, 19 (1947), 210-25. T.M. Brown, The Mechanical Philosophy
and Animal Oeconomy, Ph.D dissertation, Princeton University, 1968,
pp. 50-7.
Goedaert, Joannes
1. Dates: Born: Middleburg, ca. 19 March 1617; Died: Middleburg, February 1668; Datecode: Birth Date Uncertain; Lifespan: 51; 2. Father: No good information. Meertens says a burger family. No information on financial status. 3. Nationality: Birth: Dutch; Career: Dutch; Death: Dutch 4. Education: None Known; Probably not even a secondary education; he did not know Latin. Certainly no university education. 5. Religion: Calvinist assumed. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Entomology; He was the first to write on the insects of the Netherlands, based on first hand observation, following the life cycles of insects. Published in Metamorphosis naturalis, 3 vols. (1662-9). He apparently had some knowledge of chemistry and of pharmacology, but there is no evidence of contributions to these fields. 7. Means of Support: Artisan; After some hesitation, I take artisan as the best category. Goedaert is remembered primarily as a painter, especially in watercolors, of birds and insects. In the absence of other comment, I take this to have been his livelihood. 8. Patronage: Non; No information 9. Technological Connections: None Known; 10. Scientific Societies: SOURCES:
Not Available and Not Consulted: F. Nagtglas,
Levensberichten
van Zeeuwen, (Middleburg, 1890-3), pp. 267-8.
Gohory, Jacques [alias Orlande
de Suave or Leo Suavius]
1. Dates: Born: Paris, 20 January 1520; Died: Paris, 15 March 1576; Datecode: Lifespan: 56 2. Father: Government Official; Aristocrat; Pierre Gohory, sieur de la Tour et de Laval, was an advocate to the Parlement of Paris, a member of the noblesse de la robe. His wife was from a similar family. They were clearly wealthy. 3. Nationality: Birth: French; Career: French; Death: French 4. Education: Par; Unknown; LD; Gohory studied poetry, music, and the like at the Collège de Sainte-Barbe. Apparently he began his higher education in Paris, and then went to some provincial university, which is unknown, to study law. From his status as an avocat to the Parlement I have assumed the legal degree, and I also assume a B.A. or its equivalent. Later on, after his diplomatic career, he pursued the occult arts including alchemy, as well as natural history. 5. Religion: Catholic. It appears that he took minor orders; he was never ordained and did not live as a priest. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Alchemy; Iatrochemistry; Pharmacology; Subordinate Disciplines: Natural History; Botany; Org; Gohory is important as an early disseminator of Paracelsian ideas in France. His Compendium (1568) of the philosophy and medicine of Paraclesus contains a summary of Paraclesus'principal doctrines and a commentary on his De vita longa. In his retirement he also devoted himself to alchemy, on which he published. The Lycium philosophal, which he founded in his home in Paris, became a center for the preparation of chemical medicines. The grounds of his home were devoted to an early botanical garden, made up largely of medicinal plants. His short monograph on tobacco, L'instruction sur l'herbe petum (1572), is one of the earliest on the subject. It is concerned primarily with the medicinal uses (as they were then perceived) of tobacco. He also pursued natural history in general. The Lycium approached the status of an early scientific academy where interested men gathered. 7. Means of Support: Personal Means; Patronage; As a young man, in the period 1543-56, he was attached to a succession of men very prominent in France, such as Anne de Montmorency and Odet de Selve, and with them he followed the peripatetic court of Francis I. Even before 1543 he was briefly in the service of Anne d'Alencon, Marquise of Monferrat. He served Gabriel le Veneur, Bishop of Evreux, for several years. None of the sources on him discusses any professional activity (as an avocat of the Parlement, a standing he gained at the beginning of his career) beyond this personal service. During this period he served on various ambassadorial missions, including periods in England, and especially in Rome (1554-1556) as secretary to Odet de Selve. He did retain his title of advocate to the Parlement until his death. It would appear that Gohory was socially clumsy and was considered something of an embarrassment by his family. Though he was the eldest son, the father explicitly bequeathed his title and the bulk of the estate to Gohory's younger brothers. Nevertheless, he inherited enough to live on, and hating the life of the court, he retired to private life in 1556 and devoted himself henceforth to study. In 1573, at the instigation of Christophe de Thou, long a friend of the family, the Parlement of Paris, of which de Thou was president, seized the recent legacy of Pierre Ramus to endow a chair in mathematics at the Collège Royale, and perverted it to a subsidy of 500 livres per annum for Gohory. He was designated royal historiographer and was expected to continue Paolo Emilio's De rebus gestis francorum which had been left incomplete. Gohory received this income until his death three years later. 8. Patronage: Aristocratic Patronage; Ecclesiastic Official; Government Official; Court Patronage; See in part what is said above about Gohory's support. Gohory dedicated some of his books to the aristocrats he served-a translation of Machiavelli's Discourses on Titus Livy and another book to le Veneur, the Bishop of Evreux, a translation of Livy's Decades and another work to Montmorency. He dedicated the manuscript of the history produced on order to de Thou, and an edition of Livy to de Thou's brother, the Bishop of Chartes. Gohory was a prolific dedicator, illustrating the whole intention of dedications. He dedicated separate books of Amandis, which he translated into French, to the Duchess of Nevers, the Countess de Retz, Marguerite of Navarre, and Diane of Poitiers (the mistress of Henry II), and later complained that the last two did not reward him. (I note, incidentally, these dedications to women, and also his service to a woman, the significance of which I do not now understand.); He also dedicated his first long Latin poem to Pierre du Chatel, a prominent aristocrat and the Bishop of Mâcon. He dedicated part of his work on Paracelsus (the volume had three dedications, the other two to peers) to Louis Saint-Gellais de Leusac, who had preceded de Selve as ambassador to Rome and who remained in the city while Gohory was there. He dedicated his translation of Machiavelli's Prince to don Ian Francisque delli Affaytdi [sic], and L'herbe petum to don Ian Francisque Caraffe, duc d'Arian. (I gather that these two don Ian Francisques were not one and the same.); Catherine de' Medici as it were sponsored L'herbe petum, though Gohory did not dedicate it to her. In 1574, together with others, he published a collection of Latin poems welcoming Henry III back from Poland. Gohory is of interest in part because he clearly despised the status of client. Partly this may be his reaction to the family's rejection of him and a feeling that he was not appreciated as much as he deserved. In any case, he retired from the court (though not from dedicating). In 1572, in his dedication of L'herbe petum, and at much the same time, in his dedication of the thirteenth book of Amandis to Catherine de Clermont, Countess de Retz, he complained that the grandees who had utilized his services had shown an abominable ingratitude toward him. Therefore, having observed the ways of the court, he abandoned it was soon as he could. (See Hamy, p. 6, and Bowen, p. 78.) 9. Technological Connections: Pharmacology; See above. 10. Scientific Societies: From 1572 he maintained a private academy which he called Lycium Philosophal San Marcellin, at his home in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. The academy was devoted to the encyclopedic cultivation of the arts in the Italian Neoplatonic tradition, emphasizing achemy, botany, and magical arts. The Lycium had a botanical garden and a chemical laboratory, which became a center for the preparation of chemical medicines. SOURCES:
Not Consulted: Willis H. Bowen, 'L'histoire
de la Terre-Neuve du Péru. A Translation by Jacques Gohory,' Isis,
28 (1938), 330-40. _____, 'The Earliest Treatise on Tobacco: Jacques
Gohory's Instruction sur l'herbe petum,' Isis, 28 (1938), 347-63.
Graaf, Regnier de
1. Dates: Born: Schoonhoven, Netherlands, 30 July 1641; Died: Delft, 21 August 1673; Datecode: Lifespan: 32; 2. Father: an architect in Schoonhoven (Eng); Barge insists on the father's accomplishments and on the wealth of the mother's family. De Graaf was able to pay for the publication of his 90 page dissertation and to include three plates. I do not see how one can question that the family was at least affluent. 3. Nationality: Birth: Dutch; Career: Dutch; Death: Dutch 4. Education: Lou, University of Utrecht; University of Leiden; Ang; M.D. As a Catholic, de Graaf went to Louvain, 1658-61. Began medical studies in 1661 at Utrecht, stayed there two years. Moved to Leiden (1663-5), where he was the student of Sylvius and van Horne. M.D. Angers, 1665. 5. Religion: Catholic. This largely explains why de Graaf never held a university position in the Netherlands. 6. Scientific Disciplines: Physiology; Anatomy; Embryology; He published on pancreatic juice in 1664, a work that was translated into French and much reprinted. He is considered one of the creators of experimental physiology. He identified the Graafian follicle, and also published on male reproductive organs. 7. Means of Support: Medical practice; He supported himself by a medical practice in Delft, beginning in 1666. 8. Patronage: Court Patronage; Aristocratic Patronage; Government Official; Medical Practioner; He dedicated his tract on male organs of reproduction (1668) to Habert de Montmor. He dedicated his tract on female organs of reproduction (1671) to Cosimo III. He dedicated the French translation of his doctoral treatise on pancreatic juice (1664) to Jean Capelain, councillor to Louis XIV, as also its new Latin edition of 1669. He dedicated his brief tract on the use of the syringe in anatomy (1669) to Vopiscus Plempius, Professor of Medicine at Louvain. 9. Technological Connections: Instrumentation, Medical Practice; He used a technique of injecting dye into organs in order to be able to observe them better. It was on this technique that the bitter priority dispute with Swammerdam developed. Beek says that he invented the syringe. 10. Scientific Societies: Friendship with Swammerdam until the dispute. In France he attended the weekly assemblies at the home of Bourdelot which appear to have been influential in his career. And here he made the acquaintance of an important part of the French medical community. Friendship with Leeuwenhoek, whom de Graaf introduced to the Royal Society. SOURCES:
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