Jean Tagault

Jean Tagault or Jean Tagaut (in Latin: Joannes Tagaultius; c. 1499 – 25 April 1546) was a French physician and anatomist known for his surgical work and for having fought against Michel Servet who defended judicial astrology and divination as sciences. He is often confused with his son Jean Tagaut, a doctor and poet.

Biography

He studied philosophy and literature at the Collège de Chanac Pompadour before becoming a teacher at the same college. He married Jeanne Lourdel and had at least one son, his namesake, Jean Tagaut (ca.1515 - 1560), a poet and friend of Pierre de Ronsard, who is often confused with him. The family lived in rue de la Huchette in Paris. and in 1534 he became dean of the Faculty, a position he held for 4 years.

In this capacity he opposed Michel Servet who had come to Paris to study medicine, then a lecturer in mathematics at the , where he taught geometry and astrology. Servet defended astrology as an art capable of becoming a science and thus of participating in medicine against the criticism of Tagault, who was deeply hostile to what he considered to be superstition. In this period there was a hardening of the Faculty's position towards astrological medicine and the deanship of Jean Tagault was marked by a doctrinal and disciplinary firmness well accepted by his contemporaries. The case was brought before the Parlement of Paris, whose sentence was quite lenient: Servet could continue to study medicine if he showed more respect for his teachers. Tagault resigned as dean in 1538 and devoted himself to surgery.

Works

Taguault Jean, (1543) Metaphrasis in Guidonem de Cauliaco (Republished in several languages.)