Nicot

NAME:

Nicot, Jean

ACHIEVEMENT:

Credited with introducing the tobacco plant into France

NICKNAME/ALIAS:

None

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:

1530, Nimes, France

DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH:

5 May 1604, Paris, France. Aged 74

DISCIPLINE:

Diplomat and philologist

FIELD:          

Diplomacy and philology

LANGUAGE:

French

PARENTS:

Father: ?

Mother: ?

SIBLINGS:

?

SPOUSE:

?

CHILDREN:

?

EDUCATION:

?

MAJOR WORK:

LIFE AND TIMES:

Nicot was the son of a lawyer. He left his hometown at an early age and went to Paris where he managed to get noticed at court and became a secretary to King <secretary to> Henri II*.

In due course his services were retained by Francis II and in 1559 Nicot was sent to Lisbon as the French ambassador to Portugal. His interest was aroused by the current fashion in Lisbon for using the tobacco plant medicinally. It was grown in the gardens of herbalists and stocks of the dried leaf were kept by pharmacists.  Amazing claims were made for its ability to cure disease.

In 1560 Nicot wrote to his friend in Paris, the powerful Cardinal of Lorraine, telling him that he had purchased an Indian herb which had marvelous curative powers and promising to send one over to Paris. In fact, Nicot sent over a plant and some seeds with instructions for cultivation.

The Cardinal became a very keen partaker of snuff made from the dried leaves, and most of fashionable Paris experimented with the plant. <sent tobacco to> Catherine de’Medici* took snuff to ease her headaches; others made distillations which they drank. The plant was supposed to be particularly good for asthma. Clergymen sent the seeds to their colleagues in Florence and Rome.

The plant Nicot sent over was later named “Nicotiana rustica” in his honor, and although another Frenchmen, Andre Thevet, claimed to have imported the tobacco plant used for recreational purposes some three or four years’ earlier, Nicot has traditionally been credited with the introduction of tobacco into France.

ASSESSMENT: Nicot was credited with the introduction of tobacco into France.

EXTRA CONNECTIONS: His work related to <work related to> Oughtred*

ONELINER:  Jean Nicot, after whom nicotine is named

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Brooks, Jerome E., The Mighty Leaf, Tobacco Through the Centuries, Alvein Redman Ltd., London and Sydney, 1953

Encyclopaedia Universalis, Paris, 1996