Jean-Jacques Chifflet


Jean-Jacques Chifflet was a physician, jurist, antiquarian and archaeologist originally from the County of Burgundy.

Life

He visited Paris and Montpellier, and travelled in Italy and Germany. By appointment of Philip IV of Spain he was physician to the Brussels court. He played a significant part in the controversy of the 1650s over Peruvian bark in treating malaria, publishing a sceptical pamphlet Pulvis Febrifugus Orbis Americani in 1653 after treating Archduke Leopold.
after Nicolaas van der Horst, 1647
At the behest of his employer, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, who was then Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, he studied the objects which had been recovered from the tomb of Childeric I in Tournai. In 1655, Chifflet published at the Plantin Press in Antwerp an illustrated report on his findings entitled Anastasis Childerici I. Francorvm Regis, sive Thesavrvs Sepvlchralis Tornaci Neruiorum... . This report is today considered to be the world's first scientific archaeological publication. The Chifflet family had engaged a Flemish draughtsman called Jacob van Werden to design the illustrations for various prints included in their publications. Van Werden provided the designs for the illustrations of the Anastasis Childerici I. The illustrations were engraved by Cornelis Galle the Younger. Two of the drawings are still in the Plantin Moretus Museum.
He published the Lilium Francicum, veritate historica, botanica et heraldica illustratum in 1658 at the Plantin Press in Antwerp. This book is a treatise on the heraldic, emblematic, iconographical and historical aspects of the fleur-de-lys. The illustrations in the book were designed by Jacob van Werden. One of the illustrations supports Chifflet's contention that the Frankish king Clovis I used three toads rather than the fleur-de-lys as his royal insignia, which should not be surprising.
He published various publications on the texts of treaties.
Chifflet's son Jules was a jurist and historian who wrote Breviarium ordinis velleris aurei. Another son, Jean, was a priest and historian who wrote about Pope Joan and published a manuscript of Jean L'Heureux under the title Ioannis Macarii canonici ariensis Abraxas seu Apistopistus; quae est antiquaria de gemmis basilidianis disquistio accedit Abraxas proteus seu multiformis gemmae basilidianae portentosa varietas.
Jean-Jacques was the nephew of Claude Chifflet.

Works