Laurent Joubert

(1529 - 1582)

The year after receiving a doctorate in medicine in 1558 in Montpellier, Laurent Joubert became private physician to Catherine de Medici. In 1577 he published the first of two volumes of Popular Errors, which dispelled common medical misconceptions—while adding some of his own. Some scholars believe Joubert died of dysentery; others say that he was called to see a patient on a stormy night in October 1582 and, mysteriously, never returned.