Jacqueline de Montfort was a renowned physician at the Académie Impériale and Alyce du Chessé’s mentor. She died in 1585.
Jacqueline de Montfort (1521-1585) was a pioneering physician at the Académie Impériale in New Bordeaux, where she held the prestigious Chair of Medical Sciences from 1558 until her death. Born into the noble de Montfort family of Madagascar, she showed early aptitude for medicine and natural philosophy.
De Montfort is particularly noted for her groundbreaking work on tropical diseases and her development of the “de Montfort Method” for treating malaria using a combination of local Malagasy herbs and traditional European remedies. Her 1563 treatise “Concerning the Nature of Fevers in Tropical Climates” became a standard medical text throughout the Empire.
As mentor to Alyce du Chessé, de Montfort encouraged her protégé’s interest in experimental medicine and the application of scientific principles to medical treatment. Their collaboration led to significant advances in understanding the spread of infectious diseases in maritime communities, crucial knowledge for the Empire’s vast naval network.
Her death in 1585 during a plague outbreak in New Bordeaux came after she refused to leave her patients, demonstrating the dedication to medical ethics she had always preached to her students. Eleanor the Sixteenth posthumously awarded her the Order of the Celestial Compass, the Empire’s highest civilian honor.