Joseph Gastaldy

Meeting of the Gourmet Jury. "Almanach des gourmands". Paris 1805

Meditation of a foodie. "Almanach des gourmands". Paris 1805

Joseph Gastaldy (born April 9, 1741 in Avignon , † December 22, 1805 in Paris ), also called Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gastaldy , was a French doctor and president of the Parisian gourmet jury .

Gastaldy was a grandson of the doctor Jean-Baptiste Gastaldy (1674-1747) from Avignon . His father was a doctor at the vice-legate and the hospital in Avignon. Joseph Gastaldy studied medicine in Montpellier , where he received his doctorate at a young age, and in Paris , where he continued his training in clinical medicine with the support of Verdelhan ( Prince de Condé's first doctor ). After his father's early death, he succeeded him as a doctor at the Hôpital Sainte-Marthe in Avignon. He proved himself in fighting an epidemic in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon and was appointed doctor at the local hospital. When Louis XV had the Comtat Venaissin under military occupation from 1768 to 1774 and the civil hospital was converted into a military hospital, Gastaldy remained the first doctor at this facility.

In 1778 he became a corresponding member of the Société Royale de Médecine. The Duke of Cumberland , who had sought relaxation in the Mediterranean climate and was treated by Gastaldy, made him a consultant doctor and the Royal Society of Medicine a corresponding member. At the beginning of the French Revolution he had to fear for his life and fled, first to Paris, then to London. Finally he returned to Paris.

In December 1797 he was appointed doctor in the Charenton hospice just outside Paris . Since the reopening at the end of 1797, the daily routine of this clinic has been determined by the administrative director ("régisseur général") François Simonnet de Coulmier . Gastaldy's successor in the Charenton Hospice was Antoine-Athanase Royer-Collard .

The gastronomic critic Grimod de la Reynière wrote about Gastaldy's work in Charenton in 1806:

“Il étoit depuis plus de dix ans Médecin en chef de l'Hospice de Charenton, qui renferme tant d'aliénés, surtout depuis une Révolution, qui a fait perdre, tourner et couper tant de têtes; et l'on peut dire qu'il a déployé dans cette place des talens inconnus jusqu'à lui, puisqu'il est parvenu à rendre la raison à un grand nombre de ces infortunés, regardés jusqu'à ce jour comme incurables. Son esprit observateur, et l'emploi de moyens moraux sagement combinés, ont plus servi le docteur Gastaldy dans ces cures admirables, que tous les secours de la pharmacie. "

“For more than ten years he has been the chief physician at the Hospice de Charenton, where many confused are trapped, especially since the revolution which caused so many heads to be lost, twisted and cut off. It can be said that in this place he developed many previously unknown skills. He succeeded in restoring reason to a large number of unfortunate people who were previously considered incurable. In these masterful treatments, Doctor Gastaldy used his powers of observation, wisely combined with the application of moral means, more than any other means of pharmacy. "

An integral part of the “moral means” used by de Coulmier and Gastaldy in Charenton was the use of theater as a therapeutic tool.

Gastaldy was a connoisseur and gourmet, and this made him stand out from his medical colleagues, who were generally "strong eaters but hardly any gourmets". He was President of the Paris Gourmet Jury ("jury dégustateur"), whose meetings he organized weekly on Tuesdays. He successfully fought his own gout attacks by consuming massive amounts of coffee. In April 1805 he suffered a stroke at night. After he recovered from it, he soon resumed his tasting activities. His participation in a round table in the city residence of the Archbishop of Paris Cardinal Jean-Baptiste de Belloy on December 20, 1805 was his undoing. He had served himself three times from a platter of excellent salmon, suffered another stroke and died on December 22, 1805.

Doctors in Charenton 1797-1840

Doctor / chief physician. medicine	Assistant doctor. medicine	Doctor / chief physician. surgery	Assistant doctor. surgery
1797–1805 Joseph Gastaldy		1797-1818 F. Deguise sen.
1805 / 06-1813 Antoine-Athanase Royer-Collard
1813-1825 Antoine-Athanase Royer-Collard (Chief doctor)	1813–1841 Bleynie	1819–1832 F. Deguise sen. (Chief doctor)	1819-1843 Ramon
1825 / 26–1840 Jean Étienne Esquirol		1833-1843 JF Deguise Jr. († 1871)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Joseph Frank . Journey to Paris, London, and much of the rest of England and Scotland, for hospitals, supply houses, other poor institutes, medical schools, and prisons . Vienna: Camesianische Buchlungs, Volume I 1804, pp. 92–94: Hospice de St. Maurice à Charenton. (Digitized version)
2. ^ Dictionnaire des sciences médicales. Biography médicale. Volume 4, Panckoucke, Paris 1821, p. 353 (digitized version)
3. ↑ Jean Étienne Esquirol . Mémoire historique et statistique sur la maison royale de Charenton . In: Annales d'hygiène publique et de médecine légale . 13 (1835), pp. 5-192. Here: pp. 27–59 (digitized version )
4. ↑ Almanach des gourmands, servant de guide dans les moyens de faire excellente chère. Par un vieil amateur. 4th year, Maradan, Paris 1806, pp. 297–298
5. ↑ Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de la Reynière (editor). Almanac des gourmands, servant de guide dans les moyens de faire excellente chère. Par un vieil amateur. 4th year, Maradan, Paris 1806, p. 298 (digitized version )
6. ↑ Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de la Reynière (editor). Almanac des gourmands, servant de guide dans les moyens de faire excellente chère. Par un vieil amateur. 3rd year, Maradan, Paris 1805, p. 207 (digitized version )
7. ↑ Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de la Reynière (editor). Almanac des gourmands, servant de guide dans les moyens de faire excellente chère. Par un vieil amateur. 4th year, Maradan, Paris 1806, pp. 291–304: Nécrologie gourmande de 1805 (digitized version )

Web links

• Michel Caire, 2008. (Jean-Baptiste) Joseph Gastaldy (digitized version )