An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

FERNEL, Jean François

4 entries
  • 572

De naturali parte medicinae libri septem.

Paris: apud Simonem Colinaeum, 1542.

The earliest work devoted exclusively to physiology and the first to call the subject by that name. It was re-issued in 1554 as part of Fernel’s Medicina (No. 2271). Femel suggested that physicians should  study the human body themselves, and not accept tradition.

See Sir Charles Sherrington’s The endeavour of Jean Femel, Cambridge, 1946.  See also the English translation of the 1567 edition: The physiologia of Jean Fernel (1567). Translated and annotated by John M. Forrester. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2003.



Subjects: BIOCHEMISTRY › Metabolism, PHYSIOLOGY
  • 2271

Medicina. 3 pts.

Paris: apud A. Wechelum, 1554.

The first systematic treatise on pathology, which also introduced the names for the sciences of pathology and physiology. In the second part, entitled “Pathologia”, Fernel provided the first systematic essay on the subject, methodically discussing the diseases of each organ. Fernel was the first to describe appendicitis, endocarditis, etc. He believed aneurysms to be produced by syphilis, and differentiated true from false aneurysms. He was physician to Henri II of France. The first section of the above work is the second edition of Fernel’s classic treatise on physiology (No. 572).



Subjects: CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE › Aneurysms, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Endocarditis, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES › Syphilis, PATHOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY, SURGERY: General › Appendicitis
  • 2374

Deluis venereae curatione perfectissima liber.

Antwerp: exoff. C. Plantini, 1579.

French translation, Paris, 1879.



Subjects: INFECTIOUS DISEASE › SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES › Syphilis
  • 11503

Jean Fernel's On the hidden causes of things: Forms, souls and occult diseases in Renaissance medicine.

Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2004.


Subjects: Renaissance Medicine, Renaissance Medicine › History of Renaissance Medicine