Théodore de Mayerne

Sir Théodore Turquet de Mayerne (28 September 1573 – 22 March 1655) was a Genevan-born physician who treated kings of France and England and advanced the theories of Paracelsus.

His dissertation defended the use of chemical remedies in medicine, under the guidance of Joseph du Chesne; this was the first intimation of his interest in Paracelsian theories.

In May 1599, Mayerne joined Henri de Rohan, a Huguenot nobleman very powerful in Brittany, on his grand tour of Europe, visiting Germany, Italy, Bohemia, the Netherlands, England, and Scotland.

[2] Despite his austere Calvinism, Mayerne greatly admired the many works of art and architecture he saw in his travels in Germany and Italy, especially liking the paintings of Albrecht Dürer and the Kunstkammer in Munich of curios kept by the Duke of Bavaria.

Despite their opposition, he retained the favour of the King, who appointed him to travel with the Duc de Rohan in his diplomatic missions to Germany and Italy.

These devotees of Paracelsus believed they were reviving the wisdom of the mythical pre-Platonic natural philosophers - men known as the prisci theologi that included Zoroaster and Hermes Trismegistus.

His inability to successfully treat those two individuals, together with his closeness to the scandal surrounding the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury coloured his first years in England.

There were fears over the health of Henrietta Maria, and in July 1627 she travelled with Mayerne to take the medicinal spring waters at Wellingborough in Northamptonshire.

In response to the Plague of 1630, he suggested the institution of a centralized 'Office of Health', with free royal hospitals, trained officials, and regulatory power.

In 1634, he wrote the introduction for and edited one of the first treatises ever published on Insects (usually attributed to Thomas Muffet), under the title Insectorum, sive minimorum animalium Theatrum: Olim ab Edoardo Wottono, Conrado Gesnero, Thomaque Pennio inchoatum: Tandem Tho.

Moufeti Londinâtis operâ sumptibusque maximis concinnatum, auctum, perfectum: Et ad vivum expressis Iconibus suprà quingentis illustratum.

In 1701 Joseph Browne produced an edition of Mayerne's Latin casebooks which includes details of medical treatments given to several courtiers, documents concerning the final illness of Prince Henry, and a journal of his consultations with Anne of Denmark and Henrietta Maria.