Marin Cureau de la Chambre (1594 – 29 December 1669) was a French physician and philosopher born in Saint-Jean-d'Assé, a village near Le Mans.
Details of his youth and where he attended school are unknown. He was initially a physician in Le Mans, and around 1630 moved to Paris, where he became a friend and physician to Pierre Séguier (1588–1672). Afterwards, he was a médecin ordinaire to Louis XIV. Reportedly the monarch was impressed by Cureau de la Chambre's ability to judge human character based on physical appearance.
Marin Cureau de la Chambre is largely known for his work in physiognomy. Between 1640 and 1662 he published a five-volume study on mans' character and "passions" called Caractères des passions. He wrote articles on many other topics, including palmistry, digestion, "reasoning" in animals, occult practices and optics. On the latter subject he investigated the nature of light and color, refractions, and the possibility of primary and secondary colors. He was the author of books on philosophy, and published a translation of Aristotle's Physica.
In 1634 he became an early member of the Académie française, and in 1666 was an original member of the French Academy of Sciences. He was the father of clergyman Pierre Cureau de La Chambre (1640–1693) and of François Cureau de La Chambre (1630-1680) who succeeded him at the Botanical Garden (Jardin des Plantes).. [1] He died in Paris on December 29, 1669.
In 1991 astronomer Eric Walter Elst named the asteroid 7126 Cureau after Marin Cureau de la Chambre.
Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine.
Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist.
The 1711 Sales Auction Catalogue of the Library of Sir Thomas Browne highlights the erudition of the physician, philosopher and encyclopedist, Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682). It also illustrates the proliferation, distribution and availability of books printed throughout 17th century Europe which were purchased by the intelligentsia, aristocracy, priest, physician and educated merchant-class.
Anne Hébert, was a Canadian author and poet. She won Canada's top literary honor, the Governor General's Award, three times, twice for fiction and once for poetry.
Simon Vouet was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists created religious and mythological paintings, portraits, frescoes, tapestries, and massive decorative schemes for the king and for wealthy patrons, including Richelieu. During this time, "Vouet was indisputably the leading artist in Paris," and was immensely influential in introducing the Italian Baroque style of painting to France. He was also, according to Pierre Rosenberg, "without doubt one of the outstanding seventeenth-century draughtsmen, equal to Annibale Carracci and Lanfranco."
17th-century French literature was written throughout the Grand Siècle of France, spanning the reigns of Henry IV of France, the Regency of Marie de' Medici, Louis XIII of France, the Regency of Anne of Austria and the reign of Louis XIV of France. The literature of this period is often equated with the Classicism of Louis XIV's long reign, during which France led Europe in political and cultural development; its authors expounded the classical ideals of order, clarity, proportion and good taste. In reality, 17th-century French literature encompasses far more than just the classicist masterpieces of Jean Racine and Madame de La Fayette.
French Renaissance literature is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in French from the French invasion of Italy in 1494 to 1600, or roughly the period from the reign of Charles VIII of France to the ascension of Henry IV of France to the throne. The reigns of Francis I and his son Henry II are generally considered the apex of the French Renaissance. After Henry II's unfortunate death in a joust, the country was ruled by his widow Catherine de' Medici and her sons Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III, and although the Renaissance continued to flourish, the French Wars of Religion between Huguenots and Catholics ravaged the country.
An overview of the theatre of France.
Roland Fréart, sieur de Chambray was a French writer, collector, and a theorist of architecture and the arts. Though not a practitioner himself, his two major publications, Parallèle de l'architecture antique avec la moderne (1650) and Idée de la perfection de la peinture (1662), appeared at a time when French architects were struggling to apply a new sense of discipline and order to the practice of building.
Ignace-Gaston Pardies was a French Catholic Jesuit priest and scientist.
Pierre Cureau de la Chambre was a French churchman.
Monsieur de Pourceaugnac is a three-act comédie-ballet—a ballet interrupted by spoken dialogue—by Molière, first presented on 6 October 1669 before the court of Louis XIV at the Château of Chambord by Molière's troupe of actors. Subsequent public performances were given at the theatre of the Palais-Royal beginning on 18 November 1669. The music was composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully, the choreography was by Pierre Beauchamp, the sets were by Carlo Vigarani, and the costumes were created by the chevalier d’Arvieux.
Cureau if a French surname. It may refer to
Jacques Thomelin, also named Jacques-Denis or Alexandre-Jacques-Denis, was a 17th-century French composer and organist.
Events from the year 1669 in France
François Cureau de La Chambre was a French physician during the reign of Louis XIV.
Pierre Cressé was a 17th-century French physician during the reign of Louis XIV.
Pierre Dionis was a French surgeon and anatomist, First surgeon of the Enfants de France.