Jean de Chastelet

Jean du Chatelet, also known as Baron de Beausoleil and Auffembach (1578, Brabant – c. 1645, The Bastille, Paris), was a mineralogist, mining engineer and dowser.

Life After an early career as a soldier, du Chatelet became enthused with the study of minerals and undertook a tour of Europe visiting mines in Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, Tyrol, Silesia, Moravia, Poland, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Scotland, and England. Through his extensive research he gained an unequaled expertise in mining and minerals. The German emperors Rudolph and Matthias appointed him Commissary General of the Hungarian mines.

During all his work for the French state, du Chatelet had never received payment and in 1640 in a precarious financial state his wife Martine wrote the Restitution of Pluto a Latin poem asking for payment and sent rather rashly to Cardinal Richelieu. They received no reply but the charges of sorcery were resurrected and they were both imprisoned - he in the Bastille and she in the Castle of Vincennes. Both died in prison, he around 1645 and she in 1642.