Arnulphe d'Aumont

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Arnulphe d'Aumont (* 1721 in Grenoble , † August 18, 1800 in Valence , Département Drôme ) was a French medic of the Enlightenment . He was one of the main contributors to the encyclopédie on medicine.

life and work

At his father's request, Aumont began studying medicine in Montpellier in 1742 . During his time as a student, he and his friend Théophile de Bordeu carried out anatomical studies in the Masonic lodge La Liberté , both of which were involved in founding it. Aumont completed his studies in 1744 and published his first work in the same year with the title Relation des fêtes publiques données par l'Université de Montpellier à l'occasion du rétablissement de la santé du roi, procuré par trois médecins de cette école (for example: Report on the public celebrations at the University of Montpellier on the occasion of the king's recovery promoted by three doctors from this institution ).

In 1745, two chairs in medicine at the University of Valence became vacant. Without a previous advertisement, Aumont was appointed to one of the two; the other remained vacant. Due to the fact that Aumont was only able to begin teaching two years later, Kafker suspects that a considerable amount of money must have been involved in the appointment and that the process caused some irritation. Until the end of the Ancien Régime , Aumont remained the only medicine professor at the university. In 1772 he also held the post of rector .

In addition to his university work, Aumont treated patients at the local military hospital and in a private practice. At the same time he underwent extensive further training and corresponded with other Dauphiné scholars , including the doctor Jean-Joseph Menuret . Aumont was one of the founding members of the Societé académique et patriotique in Valence, was a member of the Société royale des sciences of Montpellier and the Académie royale des sciences, belles-lettres et arts of Lyon .

Aumont published only a few independent writings. In 1762 , Mémoire sur une nouvelle méthode d'administrer le mercure dans les maladies vénériennes et autres (for example: Report on a new method of administering mercury in venereal and other diseases ) appeared. Compared to Aumont's contributions to the Encyclopédie , however, this takes a subordinate role .

Starting with the third volume of the Encyclopédie , published in 1753 , the Enlightenment worker contributed several hundred articles (author abbreviation: "d"). After the death of Urbain de Vandenesse , Denis Diderot needed a medical writer. Aumont was chosen on the recommendation of Gabriel-François Venel . He seemed to be doing his job to everyone's satisfaction. Although he sometimes submitted his articles too late and did not always write legibly, he received a friendly letter from Diderot in 1755 and was described in the foreword to volume five (1755) as "one of our most versatile and useful colleagues". After the scandal surrounding d'Alembert's article Genève in the seventh volume (1757) of the Encyclopédie and the entry of the work into the list of writings prohibited by the Catholic Church, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum , in 1759 , all of Aumont's contributions appeared without any reference to his authorship.

Little is known about Aumont's role during the French Revolution . His last child, a daughter, who had been married after he moved to Valence, died in the summer of 1794. A report from his son-in-law tells us that Aumont died on August 18, 1800.

Works (selection)

  • Relation des fêtes publiques données par l'Université de Montpellier à l'occasion du rétablissement de la santé du roi, procuré par trois médecins de cette école (1744)
  • Mémoire sur une nouvelle méthode d'administrer le mercure dans les maladies vénériennes et autres (1762)

literature

  • Aumont, Arnulphe d ' , in: Frank Arthur Kafker, The encyclopedists as individuals: a biographical dictionary of the authors of the Encyclopédie, Oxford 1988, ISBN 0-7294-0368-8 , pp. 16-18 (there also references to further Literature).

Web links

Wikisource: Arnulphe d'Aumont  - Sources and full texts (French)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frank A. Kafker: Notices sur les auteurs of dix-sept volumes de "discours" de l'Encyclopédie. Research on Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie. 1989, Volume 7, Numéro 7, p. 128
  2. ↑ Kafker, The encyclopedists as individuals , p. 16 notes on this: "... a procedure which must have cost a handsome sum to arrange and which disturbed so many influential people that he could not gain possession of the chair until two years later."
  3. ↑ "un de nos plus habiles & de nos plus utiles collègues", here quoted from Kafker, The encyclopedists as individuals , p. 17.
personal data
SURNAME Aumont, Arnulphe d '
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French enlightenment medic
DATE OF BIRTH 1721
PLACE OF BIRTH Grenoble
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1800
Place of death Valence , Drôme department