Louis de Jaucourt

Chevalier Louis de Jaucourt (September 16, 1704; Paris – February 3, 1779; Compiègne) was a French scholar and a major contributor to the Encyclopédie. He wrote about 18,000 articles on physiology, chemistry, botany, pathology, and political history among other topics.

Jaucourt studied theology in Geneva, natural sciences at the University of Cambridge, and medicine in Leiden. Upon returning to France, he write the Lexicon medicum universalis, a six-volume work on anatomy and then sent it to be published in Amsterdam to avoid French censorship. Unfortunately, the ship carrying the sole manuscript sank. He also wrote a biography of Leibniz in 1756.