Tarrare is remembered through extraordinary accounts of appetite and behaviour. The responsible historical question is not whether a person could literally “eat anything”, but what the surviving account says, how it was produced and which claims remain uncertain.
Begin with the document
Pierre-François Percy’s Mémoire sur la polyphagie is a central source for the story. A digitised page is available through Wikimedia Commons with its library provenance. A historical medical report is evidence of what an author recorded; it is not automatic confirmation of every anecdote later repeated online.
The title of this article previously presented an unlimited ability as fact. That wording overstates what a historical account can establish.
Separate three kinds of claim
- A document exists: its author, publication and text can be investigated.
- The document reports an event: check whether the writer claims direct observation or repeats another person’s story.
- A modern explanation is proposed: this requires additional evidence and should not be mistaken for the original report.
A sensational retelling often collapses these distinctions. Repetition across websites does not create independent corroboration.
What should remain unresolved?
Do not infer a modern diagnosis from an unusual historical narrative. Allegations of harm also need to remain allegations unless supported independently. Uncertainty is part of the history, not a gap that fiction should silently fill.
A better creative exercise
Imagine a fictional archivist who discovers an independently dated witness account. How would it change confidence in one specific claim? Write the new document as fiction and explain which details could be checked against the older account.
This exercise explores how historical knowledge changes without inventing a cure, diagnosis or accusation about a real person.
Sources and evidence
- Percy: digitised page of Mémoire sur la polyphagie — historical document with provenance.
- Tobi Poster-Su: raising and objectifying the dead on stage — scholarly discussion of representing Tarrare in performance.
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*AI-assisted editorial refresh: 7 September 2026. Sources support the historical starting point; alternate outcomes are explicitly hypothetical.*