Servetus, Michael

1. Dates

Born: Villanueva de Sixena, Huesca, Spain, 29 Sept. 1511 There is an element of uncertainty about the year. Servetus himself supplied conflicting evidence; he also gave the year 1509. However, most agree that 1511 is probable.

Died: Geneva, 27 October 1553

Dateinfo: Birth Uncertain

Lifespan: 42

2. Father

Occupation: Lawyer

Antonio Servetus, alias Reves, was a notary.

No indication of financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: Spanish

Career: Swiss, French

Death: Swiss

4. Education

Schooling: Toulouse; Paris, M.D.

Possibly he attended the University of Sarazoga, but I am not listing it.

He pursued legal studied in Toulouse in 1528-9.

He studied in Paris in 1533 at the Collège Calvi, and then, after an interval, undertook medical studies in Paris in 1536. Although there is no university record of a medical degree, he probably earned one. I assume the equivalent of a B.A.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic, Heterodox

At the age of fifteen Servetus entered the service of a Franciscan friar, Juan de Quintana, an Erasmian.

He was already spreading arianism by 1530. In 1531 he published De trinitatis erroribus and in 1532 De trinitate. As a result of these two works he had to live under the pseudonym, Michel de Villeneuve. In 1553 he published another arian, pantheistic book, Christianismi restitutio, which led first to his condemnation by the Inquisition in France, and then, after he escaped, to his execution at the stake in Geneva.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary:Gog, Phr, Phl.

Subordinate: Med, Asl.

While practicing medicine around Lyon under the pseudonym, Servetus published two influential editions of Ptolemy's Geography.

While he was working as a proofreader in Lyon he became interested in medicine and published two books concerned with medicine and pharmacology. One of these, a work on syrups, devotes much space to a theory of digestion.

In Christianismi restitutio he published for the first time in the Latin West the concept of the minor circulation of the blood through the lungs.

In Paris he defended astrology in print.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Patronage, Medicine

Secondary: Publishing, Schoolmastering

Servetus entered the service of the Franciscan Quintana in 1526. After an interruption to study law at Toulouse, in 1529 he went with Quintana, newly appointed confessor of Charles V, in the imperial retinue, travelling through Italy to Germany. He had left his patron by 1530.

He was in Basel for ten months in 1530-1, staying with Oecolampadius and probably supporting himself as a corrector for a printer.

After a brief period of study in Paris under his pseudonym, he moved to Lyon where he worked for a printer, as a corrector and editor.

When he returned to Paris to study medicine, his Syroporum universa ratio, on the use of syrups as medicines, was highly successful and may have helped to finance his medical education. He also gave lectures to support himself.

After his medical studies, Servetus practised medicine for about fifteen years--in Lyon, Avignon, Charlieu, and then, sometime after 1540, in Vienne where he stayed for twelve years. For at least a three year period in there he was the personnal physician to Archbishop Palmier of Vienne. He was also physician to Guy de Maugiron, the lieutenant governor of Dauphiné.

8. Patronage

Types: Eccesiastic Official, Aristrocrat, Physician, Government Official

In addition to functioning as personal physician to Archbishop Palmier, Servetus dedicated his second edition of Ptolemy's Geography to him.

Hugues de la Porte was the patron of Servetus's first edition of Ptolemy and of his edition of the Bible.

Symphorien Champier, a medical humanist of Lyon, was Servetus' patron during his period in Lyon. Servetus' pharmacological tracts were written in defense of Champier against Leonard Fuchs.

See above for his relation with the lieutenant governor.

9. Technological Involvement

Types: Pharmacology, Medical Practice

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

In Paris he was in a lively medical circle. His teachers included Sylvius, Fernel, and Guinter. Guinter hailed him, with Vesalius, as his most able assistant in dissection.

On the whole, however, Servetus was a figure isolated by his theological views.

Sources

1. Roland Bainton, Hunted Heretic: The Life and Death of Michael Serveus, 1511-1553, (Boston, 1953).
2. Not consulted: B. Becker, ed., Autour de Michel Servet et de Sebastien Castellion, (Haarlem, 1953).
3. Eloy Bulln y Fernndez, Miguel Servet y la geografa del Renacimento, 3rd ed., (Madrid, 1945).
4. Juan-Manuel Palacios Snchez, El illustre aragons Miguel Servet, (Huesca, 1956).

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.