DUHAMEL (DU HAMEL), JEAN-BAPTISTE. - French philosopher and theologian, b. at Vire in Normandy on 11 June 1624, d. at Paris on 5 Aug. 1706.
He studied at Caen and Paris and distinguished himself from childhood by his exceptional gifts. At the age of 18, already professor of mathematics at the « Maître-Gervais » college in Paris, he published his first scientific study, Elemento astronomica (Paris 1642). At 19 he entered the Paris Oratorians (1643). Ordained priest, he taught philosophy in the colleges of his Congregation. In 1653 he left the Oratory to become parish priest at Neuilly-sur-Marne. He then went to Bayeux (1663), and in 1666 was appointed secretary of the Academy of Sciences, then founded by Colbert.
His scientific activity was highly significant. He wrote on philosophy, theology, Sacred Scripture, history, and the physical and astronomical sciences. Among his principal works, published several times in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, mention may be made of Philosophia moralis Christiana (Angers 1652); Philosophia vetus et nova (4 vols., Paris 1678); Institutiones Biblicae (2 vols., ibid. 1698); Regiae Academiae Historiae (ibid. 1698); Biblia Sacra Vulgatae editionis (2 vols., ibid. 1705-1706).