Rey, Jean

1. Dates

Born: Le Bugue, c. 1582

Died: c. 1645

Dateinfo: Both Dates Uncertain

Lifespan: 63

2. Father

Occupation: Unknown

No information on financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: French

Career: French

Death: French

4. Education

Schooling: Montaubon, M.A.; Montpelier, M.D.

He took his M.A. at Montaubon. He matriculated in 1605 and studied medicine at the University of Montpellier, graduating M.B. in 1607 and M.D. in 1609. I assume the equivalent of a B.A.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Chemistry

His fame rests solely on his Essays de Jean Rey docteur en médecine, (Bazas, 1630), a reply to apothecary Pierre Brun's request for an explanation of why tin and lead increase in weight when heated. The essays, appealing to reason, observation and experiments, anticipated Lavoisier's recognition in 1722 that calcination involves combination with air.

Hoefer writes that domestic difficulties forced him to put aside his studies in chemistry, but no further details are given.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Medicine

Practiced medicine at Le Bugue.

Few details are known of his life as a physician, except that he seems to have been highly regarded. The last record of him shows that he was still alive in 1645.

8. Patronage

Type: Aristrocrat

Rey dedicated his Essays to the Duc de Bouillon.

9. Technological Involvement

Types: Medical Practice, Mechanical Devices

Rey claimed to have received royal privileges for an air compressor. He claimed to have invented an air-gun some years before Rivault published his work in 1608.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

His friends were Jean Brun, an apothecary, Deschamps, a physician, and Pierre Trichet. He corresponded with Mersenne and Descartes.

Sources

1. Hoefer, Nouvelle biographie générale, (Paris, 1857-66).
2. Michaud, Biographie générale.
3. Jean Rey, The Essays of Jean Rey, Introduction by D. McKie, (London, 1951). QD11.A36 NO.11 D.McKie, in Ambix, 6 (1957-1958), 136-9. QD13.A49
4. J.R. Partington, A History of Chemistry, 2, (London, 1961), 631-6. QD11.P27

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.