The de Mayerne manuscript was compiled between 1620 and 1646 by Sir Théodore Turquet de Mayerne. Born in Geneva, de Mayerne was a physician who, among other things, treated kings in both England and France. The document, written mostly in French, is a complex collection of scientific studies, observations and detailed notes on various patients. Later in his life, the prominent London doctor became interested in how pigments were created and expanded his knowledge on the subject by interviewing over 50 artists (including Rubens and van Dyck) regarding their techniques. Included in the volume are numerous pages devoted to his studies of the preparation of colours. James Freeman of the British Museum says, “It is an invaluable record of the seventeenth-century ‘medical arts’: the application of scientific methodologies to the study of artistic techniques, and the contribution that painting could make to the development of chemical knowledge.”
