Théophraste Renaudot (French pronunciation: [teɔfʁastʁənodo] ; December 1586 –25 October 1653) was a French physician, philanthropist, and journalist.
Born in Loudun, Renaudot received a doctorate of medicine from the University of Montpellier in 1606. He returned to Loudon where he met Cardinal Richelieu and Père Joseph. In the 1610s, Richelieu became more powerful and in 1612 he summoned Renaudot to Paris, partly because of his medical reputation, but more because of his philanthropy. [1] Renaudot, born a Protestant, converted to Catholicism. He became the physician and councillor to Louis XIII of France. [2]
As part of his duties, Renaudot was asked to organize a scheme of public assistance. Many difficulties were put in his way, however, and he therefore returned until 1624 to Poitou, where Richelieu made him "commissary general of the poor." [1] In 1630, now back in Paris, Renaudot opened the bureau d'adresse et de rencontre, where prospective employers and employees could find each other. With the support of Richelieu, he established the first weekly newspaper in France, La Gazette , in 1631. Starting in 1633, he organized weekly public conferences on subjects of interest and published the proceedings; the conferences were discontinued in 1642, when Richelieu died. About 240 conference proceedings were translated into English and published in London in 1664 and 1665.
Renaudot opened the mont-de-piété, the first pawnshop in Paris, in 1637. Appointed "General Overseer of the Poor" by Richelieu, he initiated a system of free medical consultations for the poor (1640). In 1642 he published a self-diagnostic handbook, the first treatise on diagnosis in France. Later he established a free dispensary despite opposition from the medical faculty in Paris. The faculty refused to accept the new medicaments proposed by this "heretic", restricting themselves to the old prescriptions of bloodletting and purgation. [1]
After the deaths of his benefactors, Richelieu and Louis XIII, Renaudot lost his permission to practice medicine in Paris, due to the opposition of Guy Patin and other academic physicians. The parlement ordered him to return the letters patent for the establishment of his bureau and his mont-de-piété. [1] Cardinal Mazarin made Renaudot Historiographer Royal to the new king, Louis XIV (Latin : Historiographus Regius) in 1646, with printing presses at Saint-Germain-des-Prés. [1]
Renaudot died in Paris, in 1653. His sons Isaac and Eusèbe, who were awarded doctorates after some delay, carried on their father's work and continued to promote the appropriate uses of medicines. [1]
Mark Tungate in 2007 termed him the "first French journalist" and the "inventor of the personal ad". [3]
Louis XIII was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown.
Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu, known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French Catholic statesman and prelate who had an outsize influence in civil and religious affairs. He became known as l'Éminence Rouge, a term derived from the title "Eminence" applied to cardinals and their customary red robes.
Jules Mazarin, from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis XIV from 1642 to his death.
MonsieurGaston, Duke of Orléans, was the third son of King Henry IV of France and his second wife, Marie de' Medici. As a son of the king, he was born a Fils de France. He later acquired the title Duke of Orléans, by which he was generally known during his adulthood. As the eldest surviving brother of King Louis XIII, he was known at court by the traditional honorific Monsieur.
Eusèbe Renaudot was a French theologian and Orientalist.
Abel Servien, marquis de Sablé et de Boisdauphin and Comte de La Roche des Aubiers was a French diplomat who served Cardinal Mazarin and signed for the French the Treaty of Westphalia. He was an early member of the noblesse de robe in the service of the French state.
Philippe de Champaigne was a Brabançon-born French Baroque era painter, a major exponent of the French school. He was a founding member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in Paris, the premier art institution in the Kingdom of France in the eighteenth century.
Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars was a favourite of King Louis XIII of France, who led the last and most nearly successful of many conspiracies against the Cardinal Richelieu, the king's powerful first minister.
Jacques Lemercier was a French architect and engineer, one of the influential trio that included Louis Le Vau and François Mansart who formed the classicizing French Baroque manner, drawing from French traditions of the previous century and current Roman practice the fresh, essentially French synthesis associated with Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII.
Renaudot may refer to:
Jean, comte de Gassion was a Gascon military commander for France, prominent at the battle of Rocroi (1643) who reached the rank of Marshal of France at the age of thirty-four. He served Louis XIII and Louis XIV and died of wounds sustained during the 1647 siege of Lens.
La Gazette, originally Gazette de France, was the first weekly magazine published in France. It was founded by Théophraste Renaudot and published its first edition on 30 May 1631. It progressively became the mouthpiece of one royalist faction, the Legitimists. With the rise of modern news media and specialized and localized newspapers throughout the country in the early 20th century, La Gazette was finally discontinued in 1915.
The Bibliothèque Mazarine, or Mazarin Library, is located within the Palais de l'institut de France, or the Palace of the Institute of France, at 23 quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement, on the Left Bank of the Seine facing the Pont des Arts and the Louvre. Originally created by Cardinal Mazarin as his personal library in the 17th century, it today has one of the richest collections of rare books and manuscripts in France, and is the oldest public library in the country.
César de Bourbon, Légitimé de France was the illegitimate son of Henry IV of France and his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées, and founder of the House of Bourbon-Vendome. He held the titles of 1st Duke of Vendôme, 2nd Duke of Beaufort and 2nd Duke of Étampes, but is also simply known as César de Vendôme.
Alphonse-Louis du Plessis de Richelieu was a French Carthusian, bishop and Cardinal. He was the elder brother of Armand Cardinal Richelieu, the celebrated minister of Louis XIII.
Claude de Bullion was a French aristocrat and politician who served as a Minister of Finance under Louis XIII from 1632 to 1640. He was a close ally of Cardinal Richelieu.
Paris in the 17th century was the largest city in Europe, with a population of half a million, matched in size only by London. It was ruled in turn by three monarchs; Henry IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV, and saw the building of some of the city's most famous parks and monuments, including the Pont Neuf, the Palais Royal, the newly joined Louvre and Tuileries Palace, the Place des Vosges, and the Luxembourg Garden. It was also a flourishing center of French science and the arts; it saw the founding of the Paris Observatory, the French Academy of Sciences and the first botanical garden in Paris, which also became the first park in Paris open to the public. The first permanent theater opened, the Comédie-Française was founded, and the first French opera and French ballets had their premieres. Paris became the home of the new Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and of some of France's most famous writers, including Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, La Fontaine and Moliere. Urban innovations for the city included the first street lighting, the first public transport, the first building code, and the first new aqueduct since Roman times.
Events from the year 1631 in France
Events from the year 1633 in France.
François Vautier, was a French medical doctor and botanist.