Jacques Gamelin

Puymaurin quickly saw that his young assistant had little talent or interest in business but showed great promise as an artist.

Gamelin's father rejected Puymaurin's suggestion that Jacques be sent to an art academy, so the baron paid his way at the Académie royale de Toulouse himself.

Gamelin later went to Rome with Puymaurin's financial assistance to study under Jacques-Louis David and Joseph-Marie Vien and eventually became a painter to Pope Clement XIV.

On the death of his father, which left Jacques a wealthy man, he returned to Toulouse where he taught at the Académie.

Aside from the full-page copperplate illustrations by Gamelin and the engraver Lavalée, the work contains a number of intriguing vignettes on the title pages and elsewhere, which show battle scenes, visitations by death on unsuspecting revelers, and the anatomical artist's studio.