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Home , Jean Astruc, Jewish name, Montpellier

AND THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTPELLIER

JEAN ASTRUC, THE SAPORTAS, AND OTHERS

By HARRY FRIEDENWALD, M.D.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

“Montpellier: This is a place well situ- ticipated actively? Inquiry into this sub- ated for commerce. It is about a parasang ject is very rewarding. (about 3 2/5 English miles) from the sea, There is a mine of information in the and men come for business there from all quarters, from Edom, Ishmael, the land of admirable history of Jean As true2 (1684- Algarve (Portugal), Lombardy, the dominion 1766), who had studied medicine in of the Great, from all the land of Montpellier, where he had taken his Egypt, Palestine, , , Asia and medical degree in 1703, and had taught England. People of all nations are found a number of years and become professor there doing business through the medium of the Genoese and Pisans. In the city there in 1715; later he left to fill a profes- are scholars of great eminence.” sorial chair in . It was Astruc who —Ben jamin of Tude la , first stressed the importance of the - Itinerary Twelfth Century ish participation in the early years of the University. “Numerous Arabs and URING the Jews mingled with the native popula- Montpellier was a thriving tion and joined with them in contribut- town in commerce and in ing physicians, for they were then the learning. “The University two nations most learned especially in of Montpellier developed primarily as medicine and in the natural sciences” Da school of medicine and as a school of (p. 6) and he cites the early references law. The former, which was perhaps as (pp. 8-15). Later he declares: “We must old as , was already famous in also acknowledge that it is to them that the time of St. Bernard [1091-1153], the Faculty of Montpellier owes much The earliest statistics of the medical of its reputation which it had in its faculty date only from 1220 . . . and foundation, because they were during recognized by a papal bull in 1289. . . . the tenth, eleventh and twelfth cen- After the heyday of Salerno was over, turies almost the sole depositories of Montpellier was, for a short time, the this science in and it is through leading medical school. them that it was communicated from “This school was partly a Jewish cre- the Arabists to the Christian world.” ation and it is said that the earliest (p. 168) teaching was in Arabic and Hebrew; Pierre Pansier, who likewise taught at any rate Latin was used in the twelfth at Montpellier, but two centuries later century. After the thirteenth century than Astruc, and who was the author Jewish doctors were expelled, or re- of a number of historical works and mained only on sufferance.’’1 in particular of the history of ophthal- Was it only in the creation of the Uni- mology at the University of Montpel- versity of Montpellier that Jews par- lier, is the authority for the following: “There was a Jewish school of medicine Prop hatiu s Jud ae us (Jaco b b . that flourished in Lunel3 and Mont- Mah ir ibn Tibb on ) pellier in the early days.’’ He cites Ben- The earliest scholar for whom Astruc jamin of Tudela as authority that “it makes the claim, though tentative, of was Judah ibn Tibbon who taught regent of the University was Prophatius there in brilliant manner and that ( ben Mahir ibn Tibbon) (1236- this school ‘inundated’ the South with 1304), the physician and the celebrated physicians. Some of them like Judah author of astronomical tables and the and his son appear to have inventor of the “Quadrant of ”;6 taught in the Faculty of Montpel- no medical writings are known. lier.’’ [?] “I do not find any difficulty,” says William vn, Lord of Montpellier in Astruc, “in placing Prophatius, al- 1181, decreed it to be “lawful for all though a Jew, in the ranks of physi- to open a school for teaching medicine cians and perhaps even of regents of in Montpellier. The Jewish physicians the Faculty of Montpellier” (p. 168). of Lunel profited by this freedom and Steinschneider7 denies the statement taught there and at Lunel.”4 There is that Jews were among the teachers of nothing in the statutes of the Univer- medicine in Montpellier. As already sity to indicate that it refused to accept mentioned we find Jewish scholars of Jews as students or to grant them diplo- this period teaching medicine privately mas. “In 1272 James 1 of Aragon and in .8 Lord of Montpellier forbade anyone to practice medicine at Montpellier, Sa po rta Famil y whether Jew or Christian, without hav- The of the members of the ing been passed satisfactorily by the Saporta have a prominent place Faculty,” and this rule was renewed by in Astruc’s Mémoires, father (Louis 1), James 11 in 1281. Pansier is of the defi- son (Louis 11), grandson (Antoine), and nite opinion that licenses were thus granted to Jews. great-grandson (Jean), all physicians.9 It is well, however, to bear in mind Louis (1) came from Lerida where he that the difficulties with which Jewish had practiced for nine years; then he scholars met were neither few nor slight. resided in Arles, in , and in Steinschneider tells us that Leon Jo- Montpellier, where he took a position seph of , at the end of the in the teaching faculty; then we find fourteenth century, in the endeavor to him at where in 1490 he be- supply satisfactory medical works for came the city physician. He later re- Jewish physicians, “studied Latin and turned to Montpellier University (1506- attended lectures at the University; for 29). He was physician to Charles vm ten years he sought Latin copies of de who presented him with a coral dish Soto’s and Tornamira’s books, even in with arms of France, long preserved in Montpellier and Avignon after the the family. He died at the age of 106 scholars of Montpellier had placed a (Astruc, p. 217). His brother Guil- ban on those who sold these works to laume-Raimond Saporta settled in other than Christians. In 1394 he pur- Rome where he became Counsellor of chased a copy of the two, at double its the Consistory (pp. 217, 218). Louis (11) price and set himself the task of trans- studied medicine at Montpellier toward lation.”5 the end of the fifteenth century (p. 231)- The grandson, Antoine took which reason they were not admitted to his m.d . degree in 1531 and became municipal offices.” royal professor in 1540, dean in 1551, The family emigrated to the French chancellor in 1560. He wrote a work colonies of America and there are none on tumors which was published in of the any longer in Montpellier.14 1624. He died at the age of 90 years in In the “Dictionnaire critique” of Viret >573 (P- 242)- Rem there is a note that Professor Sa- Jean was graduated in 1572, became porta was a Protestant. professor in 1577, vice-chancellor in Another contemporary note is at 1603. He died in 1605. He wrote a hand: Dr. I. Fischer, the well-known treatise on venereal lues which was pub- medical historian of Vienna, now in lished in 1620 (p. 246). Barthélémy in London, in a paper “Aus dem Tage- his “Les Médecins a Marseille avant buch des Felix Platter” (no date), tells et pendant le Moyen-Age,”10 describes us that Platter (1536-1614) lived at the Sapor ta family as “a sort of med- Montpellier as a student for about four ical dynasty; among the most cele- and a half years in the home of an brated members of the faculty of Mont- apothecary, Laurentius Catalan, a Mar- pellier.” Astruc does not indicate in rano, and that this man’s sons spent the any way that the Saportas were same time with Platter’s parents in Jewish. Basel. Familiar with the names of distin- Platter himself met a number of Mar- guished Jewish scholars, named Sapor- ranos and fell in love with a Marrano tas, of the seventeenth and eighteenth girl while there, Ihane de Sos, the centuries, it seemed worth while to daughter of Pierre Sos. The girl later search through the excellent volumes married the widower, Dr. Antoine of Baer’s documentary records11 and Saporta. Fischer expresses the suspicion here a large number, variously spelled that Saporta may also have been of Mar- were found. It was thus only after find- rano descent. ing the Saportas family frequently men- The Saporta whom both Scaliger and tioned in the records of northeastern Platter met, was Antoine. It is not with- Spain, that a footnote was discovered out interest to note that it is he who is in Kayserling’s history of the Jews of mentioned by Rabelais as one of the Navarre.12 Here we learn that group of students who in 1531 per- Scaliger (1540-1609) visited Montpel- formed the play, “The Man with a Deaf lier and recorded his meeting with M. Wife” (Rabelais, Book hi , chap. 34). Saporta thus: “M. Saporta, his father and his grandfather were Jewish and did Miche l Nost radam us not eat pork . . . the father treated me Next we find to whom most hospitably in Montpellier. He is a Astruc devotes a long chapter (pp. 311- Marrano. . . . Those of are 315). He was born in St. Remy in all Marranos, Jews worse than Span- in 1503. His grandparents on iards, a bad .”13 A later footnote adds: both sides were Jews who became con- “The family and others of Montpellier verts early in the sixteenth century. came from Spain, met with a number Both his grandfathers were prominent of outrages in 1601 although they were physicians. He studied in Avignon and established there more than a century. in Montpellier, where he took his m.d . They were suspected of Marranism, for degree in 1529, and perhaps even be- came professor (p. 312). But he did not Sanches, born in Brago in 1562, died in remain long in Montpellier. “His astro- Toulouse in 1632, physician and phil- logical studies were ridiculed by scholars osopher, and states definitely that he but were rewarded in gold and reputa- was of Jewish descent.16 tion by royalty and others.” Astruc says says that “Michel Nostradamus was not Antoine d ’Aqui n (1632-1696) ignorant of his (Jewish) extraction; he Astruc devotes much space to Antoine claimed to be of the tribe of Issachar who received his M.D. degree at Mont- and took pride in this in the belief that pellier in 1648. He returned to Paris this tribe was endowed with wisdom and became a court physician (pp. 387- and brilliancy, able to foretell the 389)- times” (p. 311). We learn that he was the grandson of a in Avignon, and the son of Franç ois Sanc hez a physician. Guy Patin did not hold Two persons of this name are men- him in high esteem for he described tioned by Astruc. (1) The first, accord- him as “a poor miser, of Jewish race, ing to Astruc, a Spaniard born in Va- a great charlatan, deficient in science lencia, entered the University of Mont- but rich in pharmaceutic knavery, pellier in 1573 and took his degrees in physician to the late queen. He assas- the following years. He then proceeded sinated several persons.”17 to Toulouse where he became a regent and served with much honor. His col- Jean Ast ru c lected works on medicine were pub- Having established that the Saportas lished in Toulouse, after his were of Jewish origin, the writer was (1632). It is, however, his philosophi- led to take a step further and to in- cal work, quod nihil scitur which was vestigate the origin of Jean Astruc him- popular.15 (p. 355) self, the author of the “Mémoires” and (2) His namesake was born in Brago, of many other important works. The Portugal, and is listed in the “Mé- list of those on medical subjects alone moires” only among the doctors of the contains eighteen and there are faculty of medicine who have distin- additional works on natural history, and guished themselves by their writings. the famous work on the Book of Gene- Hirsch states (vol. vi, p. 992) that he was sis, as well as one on the immateriality born in 1562, the son of a distinguished and immortality of the soul. physician, Antonio Sanchez; that he His biographer informs us that Jean studied medicine in , and be- Astruc18 (1684-1766) was born in came professor of medicine in Montpel- Sauve.19 His father was a Protestant min- lier in 1586, where he taught for several ister, and the child was baptized in the years; later he occupied a chair at Tou- Protestant Church, but was later never louse for many years. His medical works known except as a Catholic; the father are said to have appeared in Toulouse had renounced about the in 1636. It is quite impossible to recon- time of the revocation of the Edict of cile these two accounts; they are either in 1685, shortly after Jean’s greatly confused descriptions of two in- birth. Concerning the family we are dividuals or more probably variously told that it was an honorable family re- distorted accounts of the same person. lated to the best of the province. But Sarton makes reference to Francesco we are not further informed as to the ancestry. We know neither the family The name occurs very frequently, nor the name of his mother, nor is the both as and , in given name of his father recorded in records of northeastern Spain and the Eloge. The editor adds this strange southeastern France under various explanation: “His (Jean’s) rare modesty forms such as: Astruch, Astrug, Struch, did not permit him to leave other Astrugus, Estruch, Bon Astruc, Mai memories of his life.” Astruc.20 Jean and his younger brother Anne- It would appear that “during the Louis were instructed entirely by their Middle Ages the Astruc family lived father who was a real scholar; we are chiefly in the comtat of Avignon. When told that he had an intimate knowledge in 1550 permission was given the Jews of the sacred language. The brother be- to settle in Guienne,21 the Astrucs were came professor of French law and died among the first to avail themselves of a few years before Jean. We have no the privilege. The earliest ancestor of further knowledge about the father ex- the modern Astruc family in Bordeaux cept that after his renunciation of Prot- was Israel bar Josuan Astruc about estantism, he devoted himself to the 1660.”22 profession of “avocat.” In the voluminous work of Baer23 It is not necessary here to dwell upon we find no less than eighty-five entries Jean Astruc’s later life. His eminence in the index to the documents bearing as a medical practitioner, as royal physi- on Aragon and Navarre to the name of cian, and as teacher of medicine are Astruc besides ten Bon Astrucs, all of well known and his medical works are whom were, of course, Jews. Saige24 not only numerous and voluminous but has reference to more than twenty-five his memoirs on the University of Mont- Astrucs in in southern pellier, on venereal diseases, and his France, and their dates range during volume on the are the thirteenth and fourteenth century. classical. It may surprise the reader to The various Jewish encyclopedias de- learn the evidence that Jean Astruc’s vote long accounts to distinguished name should be placed among the de- Jews bearing this name. The Jewish scendants of Spanish Jews. The writer Encyclopedia in particular, which lists has been unable to find any such refer- a goodly number, locates them all in ence or suggestion in the numerous northern Spain and southern France. biographical accounts of this distin- Saige’s book furnishes the evidence guished physician. And yet the evidence that there were Jews in Sauve, the which will be presented, leads to this birthplace of Jean and his father, in the conclusion. Middle Ages. There is reference in a The name, Astruc, originated in letter of arrest under date of 1282 to southern France. Its earliest appear- de Savarduno and to Abrae [ham] ance was in the eleventh century and and Samuel de Savarduno (p. 212) and was in all probability the Provençal in a document dated 1307 to Vital de word “Astruc” from the Latin, Aster, Sauve (p. 278) and Salomon de Savar- used in the sense of “lucky star.” It was dun (Sauve) (p. 279), and more in- a distinctly Jewish name; an ancient teresting still, to Astruc Lorie, to Astruc rabbi whose was Gad Solomon and to Astrug Senior, Juifs of (fortune), was generally known as Sauve (p. 322). Astruc. Perhaps the following will best in- dicate the relative frequency of the goes out from Israel b. Josuan and bears name of Astruc in Languedoc; Saige’s the names of one son and four grand- “Table Analytique’’ mentions Joseph sons of the eighteenth century. The and Samuel each twelve times, Isaac great tree branched out from Nathan fifteen, sixteen, and Salomon, but his date is later than that seventeen each, Solomon eight- of Jean Astruc’s death. Thus this genea- een, and Astruc twenty-five times. Gross logical tree is of no help to us, and in the “Gallia Judaica,”25 enumerates since there are no known records we twenty-eight of the name of Astruc in are obliged to rely entirely on the the Index (p. 69s).26 Again we find the “circumstantial evidence” here re- name frequently mentioned in Wicker- corded, which, however, makes the sheimer’s biographical dictionary.27 claim of Jewish ancestry highly prob- Here there are sixteen physicians or able. surgeons named Astruc, all noted as It may be noted, if this conclusion is Jewish, and all in Languedoc and Pro- correct, that the family, originally Jew- vence (this does not include other Jew- ish, had probably become neo-Christian ish physicians named Astruc in Ara- (Marrano, i.e., Roman Catholic under gon!)- duress), and had later become Protes- In contrast with the frequency of the tant; but when the Edict of Nantes was name Astruc in and Jew- revoked in 1685 Jean’s father found it ish records, we find but a single Astruc preferable to revert and thus raised his mentioned in Oettinger’s “Moniteur de children in the Catholic faith. The Dates,” 1866, and that is Jean Astruc; family thus had extraordinary experi- the same statement applies to Bayle and ences in changes of faith. It is not with- Thillaye, “Biographie Medicale,” 1855; out interest that Jean, the son of this and the “Grande Encyclopédie” men- family, should have had sufficient tions but two names, Jean and one knowledge of Hebrew (clearly received Zachariah, a Jewish sculptor of the nine- at the hands of his father) to have been teenth century. among the earliest “Founders of Old We conclude that Jean Astruc sprang Testament Criticism”; he indicated the from this Jewish and Marrano com- differences in the names of the Deity munity of Languedoc and Provence as the index of the sources of the com- which produced a large number of posite book of Genesis. scholars and a goodly number of Assuming the correctness of these con- physicians. clusions, it is unlikely that Astruc was An elaborate “Généalogie de la unacquainted with the fact of this Jew- Famille Astruc” was drawn up by ish ancestry. For he had a very strong Roger Kohn in 1924; its roots reach historical sense as is shown in his history into the “Tribe of ” and the of the University of Montpellier, his earliest known member was Abbamari history of the literature of syphilis, and Astruc of the date of 1040 who was fol- his biographical history of gynecology, lowed by a few descendants, Salomon de in his work “de Morbis Mulierum” Melgueil of , 1230,28 and (Paris 1790). Rabbi Astruc, burnt in Palma in 1435, This lends additional interest to his Israel b. Josuan (founder of the Bor- references to Jews in his works. It was deaux branch, 1660), and Nathan Salo- Astruc, as indicated above, who empha- mon, 1692. The first meager branch sized the fact that in early times Arabs and Jews were among the inhabitants Zechariah under the date of 1171, of Montpellier and “furnished the phy- among the early masters of the medical sicians, for these were then the two university,30 even though the tablet it- learned nations, especially in medicine self is an historical error. It is far more and the natural sciences” (p. 6) and it is significant to read in the address of Pro- to Astruc, as mentioned above, that we fessor Croiset delivered at the celebra- owe information of the part played by tion of the Sixth Centenary of the Uni- Jews in the early period of the history of versity of Montpellier in 1891:31 the University of Montpellier. He “Those who came from Spain, it is makes a number of references to Jewish said, were chiefly Jewish physicians. doctors (pp. 10, 12). Montpellier was then one of the cities In discussing the early neglect of ana- where there was most opportunity for tomical dissection, he attributes this to tranquil life; conditions had introduced the Arabic and Jewish physicians and relative tolerance into their customs, bases it upon the Biblical proscriptions which was of great benefit to them. in Numbers 19:11 and the “Misneh.” Disciples of Avicenna and Averroes, In his history of the literature of they brought with them Arabic science syphilis, he refers to “Amatus Lusita- filled with Greek traditions. Due to nus” (Latin edition, p. 734); for no spe- their influence, our city, in the twelfth cial reason he states that Amatus set out century, enjoyed a reputation for medi- to deride the Jews though he himself cine. . . . Thus what we find at our was a secret Jew.29 cradle, is a mixture of races, a tolerance, In conclusion it is not without in- if not proclaimed yet no less practised, terest that the tradition in Montpellier that is the desire to learn, stronger than of Jewish instructors and influence is to to prejudge, true to nobility which be seen in the entrance hall of the fac- today raises us high because, as they say, ulty of medicine of Montpellier, where better than any profession of faith is there is a plaque in honor of Nathan b. what we wish and what we are.”

Refer ences 1. Sart on . Introduction to History of Sci- about 1173.) Wickersheimer, La Ques- ence. Baltimore, 1931. vol. II, p. 352. tion du Judeo-Arabisme à Montpellier, 2. Mémoires pour servir à l’Histoire de la Janus 1927, Vol. 31, p. 465. Faculté de Médecine de Montpellier, 4. Pans ier . Les Médecins juifs à Avignon 1767. Also Germain, L’Ecole de Méde- aux XHIme XIVme et XVme Siècles. cine de Montpellier, 1880, and his other Janus, 15:424, 1910. monographs. 5. Stei ns ch ne ide r . Hebraeische Ueberset- 3. At “Lunel lived . . . R. Judah the zungen des Mittelalters. Berlin, 1893. physician, the son of Tibbon the Se- P- 795- phardi. The students that come from 6. Astr uc . Mémoires, pp. 166-168; Stein- •distant lands are taught, boarded, schneider H. U., p. 976; Friedenwald. lodged and clothed by the congrega- Bull. Hist. Med., 7:469, 1939. tion so long as they attend the house 7. Virchow’s Archives, 42:51, 1868. of study. The community has wise, 8. Bart hél émy . Les Médecins à Marseille, understanding and saintly men of great etc., Marseille, 1883, pp. 13, 14, 15, 31. benevolence, who lend a helping hand 9. states that the to all their brethren both far and name “Saspartos” (originally Seis- near.” (The Itinerary of Benjamin of portas) was later mispronounced Tudela, translated by N. Adler, Lon- “Saportas,” “Saporta” and “Sforta.” don, 1907, page 3. He visited Lunel 10. Pages 18 and 26. 11. “Die Juden im Christlichen Spanien.’’ Regent of the Faculty of Medicine of Berlin, 1929. Vol. I, pp. 129, 205, 365, Paris, the editor of the Mémoires. 408, 409, 413, 427, 428, 499, 628, 861, 19. In lower Languedoc in the Diocese 881, 904, 905, 1019. d’Alais. Sauve is about 60 km. north- 12. Die Juden in Navarre, 1861, p. 143. Some- west of Avignon and about the same what later Graetz refers to Scaliger with distance north and a little east of the statement: “On les soupçonna de Montpellier. Marranisme.” (Geschichte der Juden, 20. For discussion of the name, see Jewish German ed., 1868. Vol. X., Append. Encyclopedia, article, “Astruc.” Note 21, pp. xvi-xx.) 21. Old province in southwestern France, 13. Scalig erana . Amsterdam, 1740. Vol. II, formerly Aquitaine. P- 545- 22. Jewish Encyclopedia, article “Astruc.” 14. But many later members of the family 23. Loc. cit., Vol. I, 1929, Vol. II, 1936. “originaire de Lerida” are mentioned 24. G. Sajge . Les Juifs du Languedoc. Paris, in the Dictionnaire Historique, Bio- 1881. graphique et Bibliographique du De- 25. Paris, 1897. partment de Vancluse, etc., by Bar- 26. The figures do not include the repetitions javal, Carpentras, 1841. They lived in of names. the end of the seventeenth, during the 27. Dictionnaire Biographique des Médecins eighteenth and the first half of the en France au Moyen Age. Paris, 1936. nineteenth centuries. 28. Solomon b. Moses (circa 1250) of Mel- 15. Hirsch states that he was born in Tuy gueil, author and translator into in France (near the French border). Hebrew (Steinschneider, Hebräische He taught medicine in Toulouse for 11 years and philosophy for 23 years. Übersetzungen, etc., Berlin, 1893, pp. 16. Isis, Aug. 1939, p. 436. 283, 284, 334, 253, 821, 822). (His- 17. Levi -Valens i. Médecins au XVIIme toire Littéraire, etc., Vol. XXXI, p. Siècle. Paris, 1933. P. 611. 686.) 18. The Mémoires, published in 1767, a year 29. Judaeos deridendos propinabat, licet ipse after Jean’s death, contain a brief claue Judaeus esset. (De Morbis autobiographical note (p. 293) as well Venereis, 1740, II, p. 736.) as an Éloge Historique de M. Astruc, 30. WlCKERSHEIMER, loc. cit., p. 562. which is the source of our knowledge 31. VI. Centenaire de l’Université de Mont- of his life. It was written by M. Lorry, pellier. 1891, p. 59.