In the seventeenth century the status of chemistry changed remarkably. Chemistry was no longer regarded as a manual practice subordinated to medicine but as an independent discipline that was taught both privately and in universities. In Germany, it became part of the medical teaching in several universities, while in the rest of Europe the introduction of chemistry in the university curricula was a much slower process, as it was often taught outside the universities. This was the case of France, where a strong opposition from the Medical Faculty prevented the introduction of chemistry in the university curricula. Nonetheless, thanks to the support of the King physicians and of members of the court, chemical teaching spread in Paris, both in private courses and at the Jardin du Roi. The present paper investigates chemistry teaching and the chemical textbooks published in France in the seventeenth century. The focus of the enquiry is the definition of the aims and scopes of chemistry to be found in the chemical textbooks, as well as its relationships to other disciplines, notably, medicine and natural philosophy.