FERNEL, Jean François (1497-1558), a distinguished French physician, was born at Clermont in 1497. After receiving his early education at his native town, he entered the college of Sainte-Barbe, Paris, where he so distinguished himself in mathematics, philosophy, and languages, that not long after obtaining his M.A. degree he was offered a professorship in the college. This offer he, however, declined, choosing in preference to become a physician. He received his doctor’s degree in 1530, and was named professor of medicine in 1534. His extraordinary general erudition, and the skill and success with which he sought to revive the study of the old Greek physicians, gained for him a great reputation, and ultimately the office of physician to the court. He practised with very great success, and at his death in 1558 left behind him an immense fortune.

His principal works are Moηαlosphwrium, sire Astrolabii genus, generalis Horarii Structura et Usus; De Abditis Rerum Causis; Medicina ad Henrieum IL; and Consiliorum Medicinalium Liber. All of them have been several times reprinted.