Guy de La Brosse (1586 – 1641 in Paris), was a French botanist, medical doctor, and pharmacist. A physician to King Louis XIII of France, he is also notable for the creation of a major botanical garden of medicinal herbs, which was commissioned by the king. This garden, the '' Jardin des Plantes'' (originally ''Jardin du Roi'') was the first botanical garden in Paris, and the second in France (after the Montpellier garden created in 1593).
Biography
Guy de La Brosse, medical doctor to Louis XIII, obtained royal permission on 6 July 1626 to found, in Paris, a herb garden destined to culture plants useful to medicine to replace those of Montpellier created by
Henri IV
Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...
. But this project took some time to come to fruition since the Faculty of Medicine in Paris considered the garden as competition to their activities, because La Brosse wished to teach botany and chemistry there.
This garden, called "''Jardin du roi''" (Garden of the King), would not be officially inaugurated until 1640, more than 5 years after its actual creation. To calm the university faculty, the king only authorised one teacher without diploma at the garden, with this choice being left to the garden supervisor.
In 1628 La Brosse published "''Dessin du Jardin Royal pour la culture des plantes médicinales''" ("Design of the Royal Garden for the culture of medical plants"). It was published again with five supplementary woodcuts in 1640. It contained the nature, virtue and use of the medical plants, a catalogue of the plants currently being cultivated and a plan of the garden. In 1631 he published "''Avis pour le Jardin royal des plantes''" ("Advice for the Royal Garden"). La Brosse had also planned the publication of a "Collection of planters of the Jardin du Roi" accompanied by four hundred copper plates attributed to
Abraham Bosse
Abraham Bosse ( – 14 February 1676) was a French artist, mainly as a printmaker in etching, but also in watercolour.Sebastien Vaillant (1669–1722) and
Antoine de Jussieu
Antoine de Jussieu (6 July 168622 April 1758) was a French naturalist, botanist, and physician.
Jussieu was born in Lyon, the son of Christophe de Jussieu (or Dejussieu), an apothecary of some repute, who published a ''Nouveau traité de la ...
(1686–1758) supplied a collection of 24 specimens.
The Jardin du Roi is now known as the ''Jardin des Plantes'' (Garden of Plants).
Works
* ''Traicté de la peste, fait par Guy de La Brosse,... avec les remèdes préservatifs'' (1623)
*''Dessin du Jardin Royal pour la culture des plantes médicinales'' (1928)
* ''De la nature, vertu, et utilité des plantes'' (1628)
*''Avis pour le Jardin royal des plantes'' (1931)
* ''L'ouverture du Jardin royal de Paris'' (1640)