Nicolaes Tulp

Nicolaes Tulp (1593 to 1674) was a Dutch physician and mayor of Amsterdam, remembered for his upstanding character and as the subject of Rembrandt's painting The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. Born Claes Pieterszoon to a prosperous Amsterdam merchant, he studied medicine at Leiden from 1611 to 1614 and returned to Amsterdam, where he became a well-respected doctor. In 1628 he was appointed Praelector Anatomiae of the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, a post that included giving the yearly winter anatomy lesson on the body of an executed criminal. As the official responsible for inspecting apothecary shops, he and friends wrote the first Amsterdam pharmacopoeia, the Pharmacopoea Amstelredamensis of 1636, which chemists had to pass an exam on before opening a shop and which served as a model for other Dutch cities. He also held civic office as city treasurer and magistrate before serving as mayor.