Jean Nicot

Jean Nicot, sieur de Ville Main ( * 1530 in Nîmes, † May 1604 in Paris) was a French diplomat and ambassador to the Portuguese court, the achieved historical significance through the introduction of tobacco as a medicinal plant in France, as well as the forefather of the French lexicography.

Nicot employed in Lisbon with the healing effects of tobacco and tobacco seeds sent in 1561 to the French court, which led to the early spread of tobacco in France. The French botanist Jacques Daléchamps gave the plant, therefore, in 1586 the final name herba nicotiana. 1828 isolated the Heidelberg chemist Karl Ludwig Reimann and Christian Wilhelm Posselt the first time the active alkaloid in the tobacco plant, and gave him, Jean Nicot honor, the name of nicotine.

By 1606 posthumously published work Lexicon Thrésor de la langue francoyse Nicot also regarded as the founder of scientific lexicography in France.

Biography

Earlier career

Nicot came from a simple family notary from Nîmes, but did not at the court of Henry II received an appointment as Lord Privy Seal. He caught the attention of the king, who eventually appointed him his private secretary. 1559, the 29- year-old was sent to Lisbon, there to organize the marriage of the only six -year-old Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henry II.

Besides watching Nicot the achievements of the Portuguese colonies and gave them to France regularly. The friendship with the then famous scholar and avid botanist Damian de Goes him benefited from the numerous colonial cultivated plants themselves and made Nicot attention among other things, indigo and tobacco. They were also surrounded by reports of miraculous properties: Tobacco should about miraculous healing powers unfold and can even cure ulcers.

Introduction of tobacco as a medicinal plant in France

Convinced that he had discovered the egg of Columbus in medical terms, he wrote to numerous suffering from various diseases personalities of the French court and reported on the newly discovered " miracle herb ". One of the earliest evidence is a letter dated April 26, 1560 to Cardinal Francis of Lorraine, where he thrilled the effect on the then " noli me tangere " called incurable ulcers describes. 1561 reached the first tobacco seeds to the court of Queen Catherine de Medici with an almost fairytale-like descriptions of the healing effect of the snuffed, issue or infused tobacco leaves.

Catherine, herself plagued by migraines, Magikern, alchemists, astrologers, and hence the news of the legendary healing effect of tobacco was particularly accessible. She was regarded as the inventor of snuff, which is why this long time " poudre de la reine " - Powder Queen - was called. This can be today, although not supported by sources, but Nicot Promote tobacco as a medicinal plant ultimately led to its spread in France.

Beginning of the French lexicography

1561 Nicot returned back to France and devoted himself entirely to the scientific writing of a French dictionary. His work Thrésor de la langue francoyse contains over 18,000 articles very detailed and is constructed as the first work of its kind scientifically structured. Therefore Nicot is now regarded as the inventor of the French lexicography. The work was published posthumously in 1606: Jean Nicot died in May 1604 in Paris.

Swell

• Egon Corti: The dry drunk. Leipzig 1930, 51 ff
• Edmond Falgairolle: Jean Nicot, ambassadeur de France en Portugal XVIème au siècle. Paris 1897.
• Tobacco lexicon. Mainz 1967.