Antoine-Athanase Royer-Collard

He studied medicine in Paris, and in 1802 received his doctorate with a dissertation on amenorrhea ("Essai sur l'aménorrhée, ou suppression du flux menstruel").

[2][3] In 1806, he was named chief physician at the Charenton mental asylum, and in 1816 became a professor of forensic medicine at the University of Paris.

Royer-Collard protested against de Sade's imprisonment at the Charenton, believing him to be sane, and asked that he be placed in a conventional prison.

[8] A heavily fictionalized[9] version of Royer-Collard serves as the main antagonist of the play Quills by Doug Wright.

He is portrayed as the cruel administrator of Charenton Asylum and jailer of the Marquis de Sade, who tortures de Sade as punishment for smuggling his writing out of the hospital and causing disruption among the other patients.