Theophraste Renaudot, medical doctor, philanthropist and editor of Richelieu's France

Abstract

Theophraste Renaudot was one of the firsts editors who, with the formation of the Modem States, tried to bring to the limited but influencia! reader the most important news - of a social and political order - about the European society of his time. His "Gazette" was put entirely at the service of Richelieu's anti-Spanish policy, from whom he received total support. However, the philanthropical and scientific activities, although short-lived, developed by this man of a fertile imagination, cannot be dismissed. In an age in which hardly any public activity could be conceived outside the structures and corporative rules, particularly when they interfered with stronger interests, Renaudot's imaginative creations seem so much more attention grabbing, and his struggle much more worthy.