Scientists France
Pierre Bersuire, also known as Petrus Berchorius, was a French medieval writer, Benedictine monk, translator, and encyclopedist.
He was the leading French scholar of his time and friend of Petrarch, author of encyclopedic works on morality, and the first French translator of Titus Livy's History from the Foundation of the City. Very interesting for researchers is Pierre Bersuir's text Ovidius Moralisatus - written in Avignon in 1340 and spreading rapidly, it is a systematic allegorical analysis of the Metamorphoses, aimed at the current situation in church and society.
Bersuire was also an eloquent preacher and author of voluminous sermons.
Matthias Bernegger (latin: Bernegerus or Matthew) was an Austrian and French scientist, astronomer, mathematician, linguist and translator.
He was educated in Strasbourg, where he developed a special interest in astronomy and mathematics. Bernegger corresponded with the famous scientists Johannes Kepler and Wilhelm Schickard. From 1607, Bernegger taught at the Strasbourg Gymnasium, and in 1616 he was appointed professor at the Academy.
Bernegger is known for his translations of Justinian and Tacitus, and in 1612 translated into Latin Galileo's 1606 work on the proportional compass, adding considerably to it. These additional detailed annotations by Bernegger made Galileo's compass much easier to use, making it the first mechanical calculating device that could be applied to a wide variety of complex problems. In 1619 Bernegger prepared a three-volume manual of mathematics, and in 1635 he translated Galileo's Dialogue on the Two Mass Systems of the World.
Matthieu Bonafous was a prominent French botanist and agronomist.
Bonafous was an innovator in 19th century agronomy, specializing in technical farming, with a particular interest in corn and its economic importance as a food crop. He also studied mulberry trees and created new species for silkworm breeding, and wrote many scientific articles, including one on rice.
As a teacher, Matthieu Bonafous offered a traveling course based on direct contact with practitioners of scientific farming.
Aimé Bonpland, born Aimé Jacques Alexandre Goujaud, was a French and Argentine natural scientist, traveler, physician, and botanist.
Bonpland became famous for his participation in an expedition to the Americas. Together with the explorer Alexander von Humboldt, he traveled through much of the American territory, from Cuman to the United States, passing through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and Cuba, in addition to Venezuela. In all these places he did a great deal of botanical work, describing and collecting six thousand species of American plants, many of which were new. The scientist made them known in Europe after his return in 1804, publishing several scientific papers. Four years later, Bonpland was appointed botanist of the Empress's Garden.
After more years, he returned to Buenos Aires and continued numerous botanical, zoological, and medical studies in various regions of South America. Bonpland sent plants to the Museum of Natural History in Paris and maintained correspondence with its naturalists.
Ismaël Boulliau (Boulliaud), also known as Ismael Bullialdus, was a French astronomer and mathematician who followed the teachings of Copernicus.
Boulliau worked as a librarian for many years and had the opportunity to study the scientific works of Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, and as a result became a strong supporter of the heliocentric system of the world. Boulliau was also intimately acquainted with Huygens, Gassendi, Pascal and other prominent scientists of the time, and he translated many works from Greek into Latin.
Boulliau's main astronomical work, published in 1645, was Astronomia philolaica (Astronomy of Philolaus, named after the ancient Greek Pythagorean philosopher Philolaus, who promoted the idea of the motion of the Earth). In it, he supported Kepler's first law that the planets move on ellipses, and provided new evidence for this. Isaac Newton, in Book III of The Mathematical Beginnings of Natural Philosophy, relies on measurements of the magnitudes of planetary orbits determined from observations by Kepler and Boulliau.
Boulliau was also interested in history, theology, classical studies, and philology. He was active in the Republic of Letters, an intellectual community whose members exchanged ideas.
Joachim Bouvet was a French Jesuit monk and missionary who worked in China.
Joachim Bouvet was one of six Jesuit mathematicians chosen by Louis XIV to travel to China as his envoys and work as missionaries and scholars. In 1687 in Beijing, Bouvet began this work, especially in mathematics and astronomy, and in 1697 the Chinese emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) sent him as ambassador to the French king. Kangxi expressed his wish that Bouvet should bring more missionary scientists with him. Thus, in addition to his scholarly work, Bouvet was also an accomplished diplomat and served as a liaison between the Chinese Emperor Kangxi and King Louis XIV of France.
Bouvet brought to France a manuscript describing Kangxi's life with an eye for diplomatic subtleties, as well as a collection of drawings depicting graceful Chinese figures in traditional and ceremonial dress. The first French edition of The Historical Portrait of the Emperor of China was published in Paris in 1697, and was subsequently translated and published in other languages. And Bouvet returned to China in 1699 with ten new missionaries and a collection of King Louis XIV's engravings for Emperor Kangxi. He remained in China for the rest of his life.
Mathurin Jacques Brisson was a French zoologist, ornithologist, naturalist and physicist, a member of the Academy of Sciences.
He is known for his published works in natural history: Le Règne animal ("The Kingdom of Animals", 1756) and Ornithologie ("Ornithology", 1760), in which he described 1,500 species of birds grouped into 115 genera, twenty-six orders, and two classes. Brisson was one of the first to come close to the concept of "type" in zoology, although he does not use the term, but his classification was used for about 100 years. He translated a number of important books on zoology for his time into French.
Brisson's works in physics are related to the measurement of specific gravity of various bodies, the study of gases and refraction of light, mirrors, magnetism, atmospheric electricity, and barometers.
Eugène Burnouf was a French Orientalist scholar, linguist, and researcher of Buddhism in the mid-19th century.
Burnouf studied at the School of Law and the Collège de France. In collaboration with the Norwegian orientalist Christian Lassen, he published Essai sur le Pali (1826) in one of the languages of Indian Buddhism. He then undertook the decipherment of Zoroastrian manuscripts.
As professor of Sanskrit at the Collège de France (1832-1852), Burnouf made a significant contribution to the study of Zoroastrianism. He also made a Sanskrit edition and French translation of the important Hindu text Le Bhâgavata Purana (1840) and published a history of Buddhism (1845).
Augustin Louis Cauchy was a French mathematician and mechanic, military engineer, and founder of mathematical analysis.
Cauchy studied at the École Polytechnique and at the Paris School of Bridges and Roads. After becoming a military engineer, he went to Cherbourg in 1810 to work on harbors and fortifications for Napoleon's English invasion. Here he began independent mathematical research. Cauchy returned to Paris in 1813, and Lagrange and Laplace convinced him to devote himself entirely to mathematics. The following year he published a memoir on definite integrals, which formed the basis of the theory of complex functions. From 1816, Cauchy held professorships at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, the Collège de France, and the École Polytechnique in Paris.
Cauchy developed the foundation of mathematical analysis, and made enormous contributions to analysis, algebra, mathematical physics, and many other areas of mathematics. He almost single-handedly founded the theory of functions of a complex variable, which has extensive applications in physics. Cauchy's greatest contributions to mathematics are published primarily in three of his treatises, "Courses in Analysis at the Royal Polytechnic School" (1821), "Summary of Lessons on Infinitesimal Calculus" (1823), and "Lessons on the Application of Infinitesimal Values in Geometry" (1826-28). In all, Augustin Louis Cauchy wrote about 800 scientific articles.
Cauchy was a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and other academies.
Nicolas Chuquet was a 15th century French mathematician.
The exact dates of birth and death of this scientist are not known, nor are the places of birth. Chuquet received a Bachelor of Medicine degree from the University of Paris, went to Italy in the early 1470s, and around 1480 moved to Lyon, where he worked as a physician, mathematics teacher, and scribe. He is also known to have translated Latin works into French.
In 1484 he wrote his major algebraic work, the treatise Le Triparty en la Science des Nombres (The Science of Numbers in Three Parts), now considered one of the most original mathematical texts of the 15th century. At the time, arithmeticians lacked even the most basic notations for addition subtraction, multiplication, and division. Chuquet was one of the first to propose these symbols; he also introduced the names of large numbers into common use: billion, trillion, etc. In addition to general arithmetic and rules for calculating roots, the treatise contains a doctrine of equations and a collection of problems.
This treatise was published only in 1880, but the works of Nicolas Chuquet had a significant influence on the development of algebra, and they were consistently supplemented and expanded by scientists of the following generations.
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance, celebrated as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. His remarkable abilities and innovative thinking made him an epitome of the Renaissance humanist ideal. Born in Vinci, near Florence, in 1452, Leonardo was educated in Florence by Andrea del Verrocchio, a renowned painter and sculptor. He began his career in Florence, later working in Milan, Rome, and France, where he died in 1519.
Da Vinci is revered for his artistic mastery, technological innovation, and scientific inquiry. Despite having fewer than 25 major works attributed to him, including several unfinished ones, his influence on Western art is profound. His magnum opus, the "Mona Lisa," housed in the Louvre Museum, Paris, is considered the world's most famous painting. "The Last Supper," his most reproduced religious painting, showcases his mastery of dramatic narrative and pictorial illusionism. Both paintings exhibit Leonardo's unique ability to convey complex human emotions and his innovative use of techniques like sfumato and chiaroscuro.
Leonardo's interests extended far beyond fine art. He was a visionary in multiple fields, including anatomy, physics, architecture, and mechanics. His notebooks reveal designs for machines like bicycles, helicopters, and military tanks, centuries ahead of their time. However, due to his diverse interests, he left many projects and paintings incomplete. Leonardo's final years were spent in France, where he continued his artistic and scientific pursuits until his death.
For collectors and experts in art and antiques, Leonardo da Vinci remains a figure of endless fascination. His works not only embody the pinnacle of Renaissance art but also provide insights into the era's scientific and philosophical inquiry. To stay updated on new sales and auction events related to Leonardo da Vinci, sign up for our newsletter. This subscription is a gateway to exploring the rich legacy of this unparalleled artist and inventor.
Jean Charlier de Gerson was a French academic, theologian, preacher and politician of the 14th and 15th centuries.
Jean Charlier de Gerson was Chancellor of the University of Paris from 1395 until 1415, and as such played a major role in the political troubles between the Duke of Orleans and the Duke of Burgundy, subsequently known as the Armagnacs and Burgundians, as well as in the crisis arising from the Great Western Schism.
Nicolas-Louis De la Caille was a French astronomer, abbot and educator.
He studied philosophy and theology, became an abbot, but the craving for science overpowered everything, and he studied astronomy on his own. In 1736, la Caille received a place at the Paris Observatory, in 1739 was appointed professor of mathematics at Mazarini-College in Paris and built his own observatory, where he conducted astronomical observations. In 1741 Lacaille was admitted to the Académie des Sciences.
La Caille was an outstanding astronomer: he observed more than 10,000 stars in the Southern Hemisphere and named 14 of the 88 constellations. In 1752, he made an astronomical expedition to the Cape of Good Hope, where he built an observatory and conducted a huge series of observations, including the discovery and cataloging of 42 nebulae. These studies led to la Caille being called "the father of southern astronomy," and his observations from South Africa of the Moon, Venus, and Mars, combined with similar observations already made in the Northern Hemisphere, led to the calculation of more accurate values for the distances to these bodies.
On his return to Paris two years later, in 1754, he resumed his post and taught at the school of Mazarin, continuing his work at the observatory of the College of Mazarini. Among his pupils was the great chemist Antoine Lavoisier. La Caille was a foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and a member of the Royal Society of London. His Coelum Australe Stelliferum ("Star Catalog of the Southern Sky") was published in 1763.
Estienne de la Roche, also known as Estienne de Villefranche, was a French mathematician.
He is known for having taught mathematics in Lyon for 25 years as a professor of mathematics. In 1520 he published the Arismatics, considered at the time the best reference book on algebra.
René Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and natural scientist who is considered the founder of modern philosophy.
Descartes was a very versatile scientist: besides numerous philosophical reflections, he wrote works on optics, meteorology and geometry. Contemporaries noted his extensive knowledge in many sciences. Descartes owns the famous saying "I think, therefore I exist" (best known in the Latin formulation "Cogito, ergo sum", although it was originally written in French: "Je pense, donc je suis").
He developed a metaphysical dualism that radically distinguished between mind, whose essence is thought, and matter, whose essence is extension in three dimensions. Descartes' metaphysics is rationalistic, based on the postulation of innate ideas of mind, matter, and God, but his physics and physiology, based on sense experience, are mechanistic and empirical.
Unlike his scientific predecessors, who felt a holy awe at the incomprehensibility of the divine essence of the universe, Descartes admired the ability of the human mind to understand the cosmos and to generate happiness itself, and rejected the view that human beings were inherently unhappy and sinful. He believed that it was inappropriate to pray to God to change the state of things and the world; it was much more productive to change oneself.
Denis Dodart was a French botanist, naturalist and physician.
Dodart studied at the University of Paris, received a doctorate in medicine and was already in his youth known for his erudition, eloquence and open-mindedness. In 1673 he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences.
He is known for his early studies of plant respiration and growth. Dodart collaborated with the French engraver Nicolas Robert to illustrate his botanical works.
Joseph Fourier, full name Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier, was a French mathematician and physicist and historical Egyptologist.
Fourier famously accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on his Egyptian expedition in 1798 as a scientific advisor and was appointed secretary of the Institute of Egypt. During the occupation of Egypt, Fourier worked in the French administration, supervised archaeological excavations, and worked to shape the educational system.
But the main thing in Fourier's life was science. Back in France, he studied the mathematical theory of heat conduction, established the partial differential equation governing heat diffusion, and solved it using an infinite series of trigonometric functions. Fourier showed that heat diffusion obeyed simple observable physical constants that could be expressed mathematically. His work The Analytic Theory of Heat (1822) had a great influence on the development of physics and pure mathematics.
Joseph Fourier was a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, the French Academy, a foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Royal Society of London.
Eugene Jacquet, full name Eugene Vincent Stanislas Jacquet, was a Belgian orientalist and linguist.
From a young age, Eugene Jacquet tried to learn as many Oriental languages as possible, including Chinese, Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and Turkish, as well as Malay and Indian. At first he was interested in sinology, but in the end he was mainly concerned with Indology. Eugène Jacquet was very talented and was also interested in epigraphy, numismatics and paleography.
Jacquet corresponded extensively with Orientalist scholars in Europe and India (e.g., Prinsep) and had grand plans for his future, but unfortunately he died at the age of only 27 from tuberculosis. Perhaps his most significant achievement was his participation in the decipherment of the ancient Persian cuneiform script.
Chérubin of Orleans (French: Chérubin d'Orleans), born François or Michel Lasseré, was a French monk of the Order of the Friars Minor Capuchin, physicist, and optical instrument maker.
Cherubin was engaged in the study of optics and problems related to vision. He designed the first binocular telescope, as well as a special type of spectacle in which the lens was replaced by a short perforated tube. Many of his binoculars, binocular microscopes and telescopes survive today. Cheruben is also credited with modeling the eyeball to study the functioning of the ocular lens.
About his research and work, Cherubin of Orléans published in Paris the works La dioptrique oculaire (Dioptrique oculaire, 1671) and La vision parfaite (Perfect Vision, 1677).
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and the founder of microbiology and vaccination.
Pasteur received a bachelor of arts and sciences from the Royal College of Besançon and a doctorate from the École Normale in Paris, then spent several years as a researcher and teacher at the Lycée de Dijon. In 1848 he became professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, and in the following year began to study the nature of wine fermentation, which began his revolutionary journey of most important scientific discoveries.
He invented a way to kill bacteria by boiling and then cooling the liquid, a process known today as pasteurization. Pasteur discovered the first vaccine in 1879 when he was exposed to a disease called chicken cholera. By accidentally exposing chickens to a weakened form of the culture, he demonstrated that they became resistant to the actual virus. Pasteur subsequently expanded his theory of germs and developed causes and vaccines against anthrax, cholera, tuberculosis, and smallpox, and the success of Pasteur's rabies vaccine in 1885 brought him worldwide fame.
Louis Pasteur's contribution to science, technology and medicine cannot be overemphasized. He pioneered the study of molecular asymmetry; discovered that microorganisms cause fermentation and disease; invented the process of pasteurization; saved the brewing, wine and silk industries in France; developed vaccines against the dreaded diseases anthrax and rabies, which saved millions of lives.
In 1873, Pasteur was elected an associate member of the Academy of Medicine, in 1882 - a member of the French Academy, and in 1888 in Paris was opened the Pasteur Institute. He was also awarded France's highest honor, the Legion of Honor.
Paul Regnard, full name Paul Marie Léon Regnard, was a French physician, physiologist and photographer, and teacher.
He became a trainee at the hospital in 1874 and received his MD degree in 1878. Paul Regnard was deputy director of the Hautes Etudes Laboratories, and from 1878 taught general physiology at the newly founded National Agronomic Institute and later became its director (1902). He was also from 1895 a member of the Academy of Medicine in the section of biological sciences.
Regnard was one of the first practitioners of medical photography, particularly photographs of the mentally ill. Together with Désiré-Magloire Borneville, he directed the photographic service at the Salpêtrière Hospital of Paris, established by the psychiatrist J.C. Charcot (1825-1893). Numerous photographs were published in the book Iconographie Photographyique de la Salpêtrière. Regnard was a tireless researcher. He was one of the first naturalists to study the effects of atmospheric pressure on microbial metabolism. The scientist made a detailed historical and bibliographical survey of descriptions of possession and witchcraft through the ages, focusing on well-documented cases.
Regnar was particularly interested in the physical manifestations described by contemporaries: fainting spells, tetany, paresthesias, signs that could only be interpreted as diabolical or at least miraculous. All these signs Regnard had already observed, photographed, and treated at the Salpêtrière Hospital in the department of J.M. Charcot, to whom he dedicated this work, and so it was from the perspective of nascent psychiatry that Regnard analyzed these historical cases.
For his services, Regnard was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1884, then an officer in 1900.
Jean Rey was a French chemist and physician.
Rey received a Master of Arts degree from the Academy of Montauban, then a doctorate from the University of Montpellier, and worked as a physician in his hometown of Le Bug. He was also engaged in chemical research, corresponded with R. Descartes, M. Mersenne and others.
Jean Rey was the first to express the idea of conservation of mass as applied to chemical reactions. While conducting experiments in his brother's forge, he discovered that the mass of lead and tin increases with calcination. The researcher explained this based on the assumption that air has mass and that lead and tin combine with air during calcination. In 1630 Rey published a treatise on this topic, "Experiments to find the reasons for the increase in the weight of tin and lead during calcination". As can be seen from the treatise, he realized that substances are made up of particles. His discovery of the weight of air also made possible the invention of the Torricelli barometer in 1643. Jean Rey also developed a device called the thermoscope, a precursor to the thermometer.
Etienne-Pierre Ventenat was a French botanist, mycologist and writer.
Etienne-Pierre Ventenat was one of the greatest botanists in France. Empress Josephine Bonaparte hired him to describe and catalog rare plants at her castle of Malmaison. Josephine enlisted eminent botanists such as Claes and Blaikie to collect plants on a grand scale. Ventenat was commissioned to write the text of the work on the Malmaison collection, and the illustrations were created by the talented artist Pierre-Joseph Redoute, nicknamed the "Raphael of Flowers." As a result, a sumptuous book entitled Jardin de la Malmaison (The Garden of Malmaison) was published in 1803.
