Dalechamps, Jacques

1. Dates

Born: Caen, 1513

Died: Lyons, 1 March 1588

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 75

2. Father

Occupation: Unknown

No information on financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: French

Career: French

Death: French

4. Education

Schooling: Montpelier, M.D.

He entered the University of Montpellier in 1545, received his first degree in medicine in 1546, and M.D. in 1547. He studied under Guillaume Rondolet. I assume a B.A. or its equivalent.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic (assumed)

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Botany, Medicine, Surgery

His most important scientific work is the Historia generalis plantarum (1586-1687), the most complete botanical complilation of its time and the first to describe much of the flora peculiar to the region around Lyons. His other more or less original work is the Chirugie franciose (1570).

Much of his effort was directed toward editing and translating earlier scientific and medical writings.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Medicine, Government

After a few years in Grenoble and Valence, he moved in 1552 to Lyons, where he spend the remainder of his life.

After arriving in Lyons in 1552, he has appointed Médecine de Hotel-Dieu, which appears to have been a municipal appointment. In his translation of Galen he is called "lecteur ordinaire di chirurgie." He is alternately called a doctor or professor, even at Grenoble and Valence. According to the Grente Dictionaire, he managed the jardin des plantes at Lyons. According to Hoefer, he practiced medicine successfully in Lyons. I think this latter has to be correct.

8. Patronage

Types: City Magistrate, Eccesiastic Official

The consulate of Lyons relieved another man of the post of médecine in order to give it to Dalechamps.

An edition of De peste has a prefactory letter from Dalechamps to the Bishop of Valence.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Medical Practice

There is minimal evidence for pharmacology, but the evidence seems too slender for reliance.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

His friends and Correspondents included Rondolet, Conrad Gesner, Joseph Justus Scaliger, Robert Constantin, and Jean Fernel.

Sources

1. Georges Grente, ed., Dictionaire des lettrés francaises: Le seizième siècle, (Paris, 1951), p. 211. PQ41 .D55 RF F.Hoefer, Nouvelle biographie générale, 12, 804-806. CT143.H6
2. RF Charles B. Schmitt, "Some Notes on Jacobus Dalechampius and his Traslation of Theophrastus", Gesnerus, 26 (1969), 36-53.
3. R131 .A1G3 Philippe-Louis Joly, Eloges de quelsque auteurs français, (Dijon, 1742), pp. 350-68.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.