Mayerne, Sir Theodore Turquet de (1573-1655)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0065
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: Mayerne, Sir Theodore Turquet de (1573-1655)
Date(s)	: 1621
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 volume
Name of creator(s)	: Mayerne | Sir | Theodore Turquet de | 1573-1655 | Knight | physician

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Theodore Turquet de Mayerne was born in Geneva, in 1573. He was educated in Geneva, and the University of Heidelberg. He went to Montpelier to pursue his medical studies and became an MB in 1596, and MD in 1597. He moved to Paris where he lectured on anatomy and pharmacy. He became one of the King's physicians in 1600. He had become greatly interested in chemistry, and made considerable use of chemical remedies in his medical practice. This support of chemical remedies antagonised the Faculty of Paris, who would accept no dissent from Galen. In 1603 Mayerne, in conjunction with Quercetanus, was attacked by the Faculty in print, in Apologia pro Medicina Hippocratis et Galeni, contra Mayernium et Quercetanum. Mayerne responded with an apologetic answer, and his only medical publication, Apologia in qua videre est, inviolatis Hippocratis et Galeni legibus, Remedia Chemice praeparata tuto usurpari posse (1603). He demonstrated that chemical remedies were not only in accordance with the principles but also with the practice of Hippocrates and Galen. He came to England in c 1606 and became physician to James I and his Queen, Anne of Denmark. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, in 1616. He was knighted in 1624. Mayerne is ultimately famous for his copious case notes, the detail of which was extraordinary for his time. He died in Chelsea in 1655.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayerne, 1621, comprising a manuscript volume titled Viaticum sive medicorum experimentorum formulae; peregrinantis encheiridion Anno 1621, containing a collection of formulae for chemicals used in treatments. Including an account of Mayerne's family.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
Latin and French

System of arrangement:

As outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

By written appointment.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No photocopying permitted.

Finding aids:

Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1928) by Victor G Plarr.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The provenance of the volume is unknown.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Correspondence and papers of Mayerne are located at the British Library, Manuscript Collections.

Notebooks, journal and papers (1607-1655) are held at Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives.

Correspondence and papers are held at The National Archives.

Mayerne's case book (1607-1651) is located at the Royal College of Physicians of London.

Mayerne's antidotarium (1606) is held at Oxford University: Bodleian Library, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Aug 2008