Jacques Gaffarel

[1] He followed the family tradition of studying medicine, and then became a priest, but mainly developed his interests in the fields of natural history and Oriental occultism, gaining fluency in the Hebrew, Persian, and Arabic languages.

René Descartes read it with interest and the French physician and mathematician Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) defended it.

Unheard-of Curiosities was one of 1,500 books in the Library of Sir Thomas Browne and one of the varied sources of his encyclopaedia entitled Pseudodoxia Epidemica.

On the other hand, the Sorbonne rejected Gaffarel's work and ridiculed him; however, he gained the protection of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu, who made him his librarian and sent him off first to Italy, then to Greece and Asia to retrieve rare books (reportedly including manuscripts by Pico della Mirandola).

Die Abdita divinae Cabalae Mysteria des Jacques Gaffarel, in T. Frank – U. Kocher – U. Tarnow (edd.

The inside cover of Curiositez inouyes sur la sculpture talismanique des Persans, horoscope des Patriarches et lecture des estoiles .
The retraction written in the above-mentioned book.