Was Descartes murdered by a priest?

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Was Descartes, founder of modern philosophy, murdered?

Yes, according to academic Theodor Ebert — poisoned by an arsenic-laced communion wafer given to him by a Catholic priest.

The more common theory was that Descartes died from the winter cold and early morning hours imposed upon him by Queen Christina of Sweden, his student.

However, Descartes's doctor described having found "something wrong" in Descartes urine — blood, Edbert concludes: "That is not a symptom of pneumonia; it is a symptom of poisoning, chiefly of arsenic." Also, Descartes asked his doctor to prescribe an emetic to make him throw up, which Ebert believes shows that Descartes may have believed he had been poisoned.

Ebert researched this for a long time, and I have to assume he did his homework. I'm unable to find the title of his new book, but I hope it helps to answer some of the questions that come to mind: How much arsnic can one get on a communion wafer? for example, and couldn't it be tasted? 

For more on this, see this article in the U.K. Guardian: 
http://bit.ly/Descartes

Also, this blog post adds to the discussion:
http://bit.ly/Descartes_murder

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A tragic legacy

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Am I the last to know?

While researching the family life of Pierre Corneille, the great French dramatist, I discovered that one of his descendants was Charlotte Corday, the 25-year-old woman who stabbed Marat to death on July 13, 1793, while Marat was in his bath.

The geaneology goes like this:

1. Pierre Corneille
2. Marie Corneille (Pierre's daughter)
3. Françoise de Farcy (Marie's son)
4. Jacques Adrien de Corday, seigneur de Launay-Cauvigny (Françoise's son)
5. Jacques François de Corday, seigneur d'Armont (Jacque A's son)
6. Charlotte Corday (Jacques F.'s daughter) 


How bizarre that a writer of tragedy should beget a tragedy.


(Painting: La Mort de Murat by Jacques-Louis David,  1793.)


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Adventures in Pdf land

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I continue to be astonished by the research that's possible on the Net. I've been reading, on computer, a pdf of a rare book, Racine et Voisin, that I was able to download from the Internet Archive. 

The author quotes an entry in Registre de La Grange. La Grange worked for Molière's troupe, and dutifully recorded daily tallies (and much else). The date given for the entry in Racine et Voisin seemed wrong according to my notes. A short Net search revealed that La Grange's notes were available on Open Library — a searchable version, no less, and I was quickly able to verify my suspicions.  

There is a wealth of information in La Grange's notes. With respect to this particular event, Molière's troupe had invested a considerable amount in producing the young and aspiring playwright Jean Racine's tragedy, Alexander, and were thus — according to La Grange's note — rather surprised to discover that the same play was also being performed by a rival theatrical troupe ... and that this had been Racine's doing.  

Jean Racine (see image above) was a genius, a writer of great power, but he was also, to be blunt, a rat. 

To see Registre de La Grange, go to: http://bit.ly/LaGrangeRegister (You may have to join Open Library, first.)

To see Racine et Voisin by Marc de Monifaud, go to: http://bit.ly/Racine_et_Voisin

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Beautiful Versailles: discovered

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I came upon this stunning image of Versailles on a blog yesteday and asked if anyone knew the artist's name and date. Voilá! Anthony (see his comment below) discovered that the artist is Isidore Laurent Deroy (1797-1886). In its original form (click here) the colors are duller. Clearly, the original has been re-colored — I like the almost surreal vibrancy of this doctored version. Too, it's possible that the colors of the original faded over time.