Jean-Joseph Tricot-Royer (b. Vilvoorde, Belgium, 20 September 1875;Sondervorst 1951-52, p. CLXVI. d. Poederlee, Lille, Belgium, 6 July 1951Sondervorst 1951-52, p. CLXV.) was a Belgian physician, dentist and historian of medicine. He was the founding president of the International Society for the History of Medicine from 1921 to 1930.See: http://ishm.wikidot.com/past-presidents

Life and work

After graduating in medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1899,Sondervorst 1951-52, p. CLXVI. he shortly worked as a country doctor in Beauvechain, near Bruxelles.Sondervorst 1951-52, p. CLXVI. Then, in the early 20th century he transferred to Paris where he worked in the histology laboratory of Mathias-Marie Duval.Sondervorst 1951-52, p. CLXVI.

Later, he became interested in dentistry and, after specializing in it, he opened a successful dental studio in Antwerp where he settled permanently.Sondervorst 1951-52, p. CLXVII.

Thanks to his wealthy situation, he was able to travel extensively in America and the East, thus broadening his cultural and historical interests.Sondervorst 1951-52, p. CLXVII. He always maintained close ties with Paris and it was there that he met his future wife, the daughter of painter Lionel Royer.Sondervorst 1951-52, p. CLXVII.

In 1914, at the Sorbonne, he gave a historical conference on the occasion of the fourth centenary of the birth of Andreas Vesal. It was a great success, and that moment was influential in increasingly directing Tricot's interests towards medical history.Sondervorst 1951-52, p. CLXVII. During the dark years of the First World War he began to conceive the project of creating opportunities for meeting and exchange between historians of medicine from all over the world, and for this reason he organized the first International Congress for the History of Medicine, which was held in Antwerp in August 1920. The following year, during a second Congress in Paris (1-7 July 1921), he was among the founders of the International Society for the History of Medicine who acclaimed him as their first president.Sondervorst 1951-52, p. CLXVIII. See also: http://ishm.wikidot.com/list-of-congresses

In 1925, Leuven University named him Maître de conférences and entrusted him with a course in the history of medicine.Sondervorst 1951-52, p. CLXVIII. It was the first on the subject after more than forty years.See: https://sites.uclouvain.be/md-histoire/tricot/tricot.htm In 1950, he enriched the same university of a medical history museum.Laignel-Lavastine 1950, p. 760.

Bibliography

Franz-André Sondervorst, “Le Docteur J.J.G.Tricot Royer, Maitre de Conférences à la Faculté de Médecine“, Annuaire Université Catholique de Louvain, 1951-1952, pp. CLXV-CLXXII Franz-André Sondervorst, “J.J.G.Tricot-Royer (1875-1951)", Le Scalpel - Journal Belge des Sciences Medicales, 104(28), 14 Juillet 1951, pp. 783-789 Maxime Laignel-Lavastine, “Jean-Joseph-Ghislain Tricot-Royer", Le Scalpel - Journal Belge des Sciences Medicales, 106(27), 4 Juillet 1953, pp. 758-765

Notes