Claude Duret
Claude Duret (c. 1570–1611) was a French judge, botanist, historiographer and linguist. He was a close friend of agriculturalist Olivier de Serres (1539–1619).
He was a son of Louis Duret, personal physician to the French kings
Louis XIII
.
Duret was an advocate of transmutation of species. He was the author of Histoire Admirable des Plantes (1605), which contained a passage that described falling tree leaves striking water and transforming into fishes and upon land into birds.[1] Biologist Henry de Varigny wrote that the book "contains evolutionary notions of a very queer sort. He fully believes that many aquatic birds, as well as many sorts of insects, are generated from the rotten wood of trees."[2]
Publications
Works by Duret include:
- Discours de la vérité des causes et effects des décadences, mutations, changements, conversions et ruines des monarchies, empires, royaumes et républiques... (Paris, 1595),
- Discours de la Vérité des Causes et effets des décadences, mutations etc des Monarchies, Empires et Républiques ; selon l'opinion des anciens et modernes mathématiciens, Astrologues, mages, etc. [Lyon, 1595),
- Histoire admirable des plantes et herbes esmerveillables et miraculeuses en nature (Paris, 1605),
- Thrésor de l'histoire des langues de cest univers, contenant les origines, beautés... décadences, mutations... et ruines des langues hébraïque, chananéenne... etc., les langues des animaux et oiseaux (Coligny, 1613)
References
- ^ Osborn, Henry Fairfield. (1908 edition). From the Greeks to Darwin: An Outline of the Development of the Evolution Idea. New York: Macmillan. pp. 108-109
- ^ Varigny, Henry de. (1892). Experimental Evolution. London: Macmillan. p. 14
- Adrien Davy de Virville (ed.) Histoire de la botanique en France. (1955), p. 394
- Michaud, Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne (1814), 389f.
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