Bérigard of Pisa (1578?-1664)
Bérigard of Pisa (1578?-1664)
French alchemist born Claude Guillermet de Bérigard (sur-name is sometimes spelled Beauregard). He was popularly known as Bérigard of Pisa because of his residence in Pisa, Italy. The date of his birth is uncertain—some authorities claim it to be 1578; others believe it is considerably later—but all agree on Moulins being his native town, and that, while a young man, he evinced a keen love for science in its various branches and began to dabble in alchemy.
He appears to have studied for a while at the Sorbonne, University of Paris, then was appointed professor of natural philosophy at the University of Pisa until 1640. He held an analogous position at Padua, where he died in 1664. His most important contribution to scientific literature is Dubitationes in Dialogum Ealilaei pro Terrae immobilitate, a quarto published at Florence in 1632, but he was also author of Circulus Pisanus, issued at Udine in 1643, in which he comments on Aristotle's ideas on physics. Bérigard's writings are now virtually forgotten, but they are valuable as documents illustrating the state of scientific knowledge in the seventeenth century.