Pierre-Fidèle Bretonneau (3 April 1778 – 18 February 1862) was a French medical doctor.
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Biography
Born in Saint-Georges-sur-Cher, in the Loir-et-Cher département. His father was a surgeon. He studied with his uncle, the vicar at Chenonceaux (Indre-et-Loire) department along with the children of the Chenonceau château. Madame Dupin, the grandmother of George Sand, financed his medical studies in Paris.
He married Marie-Thérèse Adam (1755, Paris - 1836, Chenonceaux), lecturer to Madame Dupin and illegitimate daughter of her son Jacques-Armand Dupin de Chenonceaux. The couple settled in Renaudière in Chenonceaux (the Renaudière is currently a restaurant and hotel). Very curious and clever, he had a laboratory at his disposal and occupied himself with gardening and other manual labours in his spare time.
He was the mayor of Chenonceaux from 1803 to 1807. He spent 15 years at Chenonceaux gaining experience, wrote his thesis in medicine in 1815 and then became medical director at the hospital in Tours; which currently bears his name. He continued his study of disease and founded the medical school at Tours.
Bretonneau died in 1862 in Paris. He is buried in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, near Tours.