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France, 1575
Paré, Ambroise
Paré, Ambroise, 1510?-1590. Les Œuvres de M. Ambroise Paré, conseiller et premier chirurgien du Roy. Avec les figures & portraicts tant de l'anatomie que des instruments de chirurgie, & de plusieurs monstres. Le tout divise en vingt six livres (transl. from French: The works of Mr. Ambroise Paré, advisor and first surgeon to the King. With figures & portraits of both anatomy and surgical instruments, & several monsters. The whole is divided into twenty-six books). Paris, Gabriel Buon, 1575, the first edition. This unique book is the cornerstone that laid the foundation for modern surgery in France and the rest of Europe, the most important surgical book of the 16th century.
PEOPLE
Ambroise Paré (1510-1590), considered to be 'père de la chirurgie française' (father of French surgery), royal surgeon to four kings. Born in the French province, he revolutionised surgical practice despite having developed only a few entirely original methods. Paré's status as the ‘father of French surgery’ is not due to individual inventions, but primarily to the fact that, thanks to royal support, his voice could not be ignored. His revolutionary methodology for the time included empirical observation (instead of reading the classics), challenging dogma (rather than commenting on ancient authors), democratising knowledge (books in vernacular French rather than scholarly Latin) — thanks to his numerous widely circulated publications richly illustrated, his ideas and concepts found their target audience and drowned out the opinions of conservative opponents, while the status of surgeons was raised from that of modest craftsmen to the noble authority of university medicine.