Item 41 - Philosophical and esoteric works, compiled by Vital Chaussegros

Little is known of this person; even the correct form of his name is uncertain. In the official record of his arrest in 1795 (see Crewe MS 41) he is named Vital Chaussegros, but he subscribes himself elsewhere (ibid., p. 74) as Chaussegros-Vital, and his name appears in other volumes as Vital-Chaussegros Theophilus-Maria, and Vital Chaussegros, théophilozophilia-Maria. According to the Wellcome catalogue (online) he was born at Saint-Symphorien-le-Château on 26 December 1769, and his father was probably Pierre Chaussegros, who was born in Saint-Symphorien-le-Château in 1735 and killed at Speyer, probably in 1792, when that city was captured by the revolutionary army. However, the record of Vital’s arrest gives his birthplace as Saint-Symphorien (Rhône), i.e. Saint-Symphorien-d’Ozon. Vital came to Paris in 1788, and was arrested on 22 May 1795, probably as one of the sans-culottes who revolted against the Thermidorian Constitution two days earlier. At the time of his arrest he was working as a baker’s boy and living in the Rue Mont-Marat (that is, Rue Montmartre). He was brought before a justice of the peace on 26 September, having presumably spent the last four months in prison, but the result of this hearing his not known (see A. Sobaul and R. Monnier, Répertoire du personnel sectionnaire Parisien en l’an II (1985), p. 243). Chaussegros became interested in the occult and atheism, and left a number of manuscripts on these subjects in a characteristic style featuring ruled borders and different coloured inks. In his later writings he often used a kind of phonetic spelling, though he does not appear to have followed a consistent system. In 1836 he was living in Paris at No. 6 Rue des Prêtres, and he was still alive in the 1840s, but the date of his death is unknown.