French chemist and physician. Born c. 1517 at La Soultière en Cérans, near Le Mans (and consequently often called Belon du Mans, Bellonius Cenomanus); died at Paris, 1564. He followed at Wittenberg the lessons of the great chemist Valerius Cordus (1540-41), to become chemist of Cardinal de Tournon, who remained his great patron. A remarkable naturalist and an indefatigable traveller, Belon visited a large part of Europe and the Near East. 'Escholier du roy' (of Francis II) in 1559, licentiate in medicine at the Paris faculty in 1560, he was murdered in the Bois de Boulogne in 1564. Cf. Dictionnaire des lettres françaises sous la direction de Mgr. Georges Grente. Le seizième siècle, 1951, page 196; Dictionnaire de biographie française, V, 1951, Columns 1382-1383; A. Cioranesco, Bibliographie de la littérature française du seizième siècle, 1959, page 115; P. Delaunay, L'aventureuse existence de Pierre Belon du Mans, Paris, 1926.
- cp011691: Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouvées en Grece, Asie, Iudée, Egypte, Arabie, et autres pays estranges, redigées en trois livres…Antwerp, Plantin, 1555
- cp012965: Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouvées en Grece, Asie, Iudée, Egypte, Arabie, et autres pays estranges, redigées en trois livres…Antwerp, Jean Steelsius, [printed by Plantin], 1555
- cp012086: De neglecta stirpium cultura atque earum cognitione libellus, [translated by Carolus Clusius], 1589
- cp012053: Plurimarum singularium et memorabilium rerum in Graecia, Asia, Aegypto, Iudaea, Arabia, aliisque exteris provinciis ab ipso conspectarum observationes, tribus libris expressae, [translated by Carolus Clusius], 1589