John Wolfgang Rumler
John Wolfgang Rumler (died 1650) was a German physician and apothecary in Augsburg, known for his Observationes medicae, who eventually served the English royal family in the households of Prince of Wales, Queen Anne, King James and Charles I of England. He is also credited with making blackface theatrical grease-paint. Early life and education Rumler was a son of an Augsburg schoolmaster Macharius Rumler and Anna Gasser, a daughter of the physician and astrologer Achilles Gasser. His birth date is not known. The physician and writer Johann Udalric Rumler was his brother. Rumler's middle name was sometimes written as "Wolf" and he was sometimes known as "Master Wolf". Rumler studied at various German and Italian universities, supported by Raymund Fugger, an Imperial Count of the mercantile patriciate of the Fugger family. Rumler received his MD from Caspar Bauhin in Basel. Career Rumler served more than 33 years at the city hospital in Augsburg. He wrote up 100 medical cases, entitled Observationes medicae, some of which are dated between 1585 and 1595. Some of these have known medical importance, e.g. Observatio 46 heart block, or Observatio 81 aortic aneurysm, in which he references a letter by Vesalius to his grandfather Achilles Gasser. On 24 July 1604, Rumler received a royal patent as apothecary to Prince of Wales. He was called out of town to prominent patients, including Anne of Denmark who appointed him on 26 November 1604 to provide sweet powders, waters, perfumes and other products. He also became apothecary to the English king and queen with an annual fee of £40 for each post. Rumler's 1606 bill for perfumes and rosewater supplied to Prince Henry over the past three years was certified by the queen's physician Martin Schöner. On 25 June 1609, Rumler married Anna de l'Obel from Middelburg, Zeeland, a daughter of the Flemish physician and botanist Matthias de l'Obel, in the Huguenot French Protestant Church of London. In July 1610, Rumler and his wife were naturalized as English denizens at the same time as other members of the queen's household; Dorothea Silking and her sister "Engella Seelken" from Gustrow, Katherine Benneken from Garlstorf, and Martin Schöner. Another daughter of Matthias de l'Obel was married to Ludovic Myreus, Lewis Myres, a colleague of Rumler who also worked for Anne of Denmark. Anna Rumler (1576-1661), who married the queen's page Pierre Hugon may have been John Wolgang Rumler's sister. She attended the funeral of Anne of Denmark, listed as "Mrs Ann Rubellow" with the ladies of the Privy Chamber. In 1613, after the death of Thomas Overbury, Rumler was questioned and testified that his brother-in-law Paul de l'Obel (1570-1621) had been appointed to make physic for Théodore de Mayerne because he lived on Lime Street near the Tower of London, at Mayerne's suggestion, and he had not recommended Paul L'Obel to the king for Overbury's physic. In 1617, Rumler visited Scotland with the king, and went as far as Aberdeen where he and other courtiers including Edward Zouch, George Goring