Skip to main content

France

1,210 entries published in France. 33 publication places.

1555 –1556

#9773

Le benefice commun de tout le monde, ou commodité de vie d’vn chascun, pour la conseruation de santé: Remedes segretz tirées des plantes contre toutes maladies. 3 vols.

A vernacular guide for living a healthy life compiled from the writings of Fuchs. Includes herbal and dietary remedies, recipes for oils, pills and other preparations to treat maladies such as fever, plague and wounds.

1556

#3573

Petit traité contenant une des parties principalles de chirurgie, laquelle les chirurgiens hernieres exercent.

Clifford Allbutt considered Franco the best lithotomist of the 16th century. His skill in extracting the stone by the perineal route was of a high order; in 1556 he introduced the operation of suprapubic cystotomy in …

1556

#12775

Ta ton Oribasios iatrikon snyagogon ek tou galenou anatomika. Collectaneorum artis medicae liber, quo totius corporis humani sectio explicatur, ex Galeni commentariis.

Editio principes (first printed edition in Greek) of the anatomical portions (Books 24 and 25) of Oribasius's Synagoge, or Encyclopaedia of Medicine. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

1557

#13203

Περὶ ἐνεργειῶν καὶ παθῶν τοῦ ψυχικοὺ πνεύματος καὶ τῆς κατ' αὐτὸ διαίτης. Actuarii de actionibus & affectibus spritus animalis, eusque victu, Libri II. Nunc primum in lucem prodeunt, Jac. Goupyli beneficio, qui nobis eorum exemplum dedit.

Editio princeps of this physiological and physiological work in two books. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. A Latin translation by Julius Alexandrinus was published in 1547.

1558

#8984

Les remonstrances sur le default du labour et culture des plantes, et de la cognoissance d'icelles, contenant la maniere d'affranchir et appriuoiser les arbres sauuages.

The first work on agriculture written in French. As an apothecary, Belon was especially interested in the pharmaceutical value of plants. Having learned about them on his travels, he introduced numerous foreign plants…

1561

#1814

In hoc volumine continentur Valerii Cordi ... Annotationes in Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei De medica materia libros V : longè aliae quàm ante hac sunt evulgatae. Ejusdem Val. Cordi Historiae stirpium Lib. IIII. posthumi, nunc primùm in lucem editi, adjectis etiam stirpium iconibus, & brevissimus annotatiunculis. Sylva, qua rerum fossilium in Germania plurimarum, metallorum, lapidum & stirpium aliquot rariorum notitiam brevissimè persequitur, nunquam hactenus visa. De artificiosis extractionibus liber. Compositiones medicinales aliquot, non vulgares. His accedunt Stocc-Hornii et Nessi in Bernatium Helvetiorum ditione montium, & nascentium in eis stirpium, descriptio Benedicti Aretii ... Item Conradi Gesneri De hortus Germaniae, liber recens, unà cum descriptione tulipae turcarum, chamaecerasi montani, chamaemespili, chamaenerii, & conozoidis ... Omnia summa studio atque industria ... Conr. Gesneri ... collecta, & praefationibus illustrata.

This work not only updated the species listed by Dioscorides, but also listed about 500 new species of plants. Published posthumously, the work was carefully edited by Conrad Gesner. Cordus was the inventor of phytogr…

1561

#3574

Traité des hernies... et autres excellentes parties de chirurgie assavior de la pierre, des cataractes des yeux, & autres maladies...

Greatly expanded second edition, including Franco's operations for cataract and urinary calculi. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

1561

#4850.3

La méthode curative des playes, & fractures de la teste humaine.

Written after the death of Paré’s patient, Henri II, who was struck in the eye by the shaft of a lance at a tournament in celebration of the marriage of Philip, King of Spain, with Elizabeth of France. Paré discusses …

1564

#2581.99

De catarrho commentarius.

Summer catarrh (hay fever) first described. Partial English translation in No. 2241.

1564

#3668.1

Dix livres de la chirurgie avec le magasin des instruments necessaires à icelle.

Paré’s first general treatise on surgery, and the most comprehensive of his treatises before his collected works (1575). Dix livres included Paré's first description of the use of the ligature in amputations, one of h…

1564

#6792

Definitionum medicarum libri xxiii.

This dictionary arranges all Greek medical terms in order of the Greek alphabet, and carefully explains them in Latin. It was widely used, and exerted much influence on modern medical terminology.

1565

#6318

Cinq livres, de la manière de nourrir et gouverner les enfans dès leur naissance.

The first French work on pediatrics. Vallambert considered a wider range of diseases than any previous writer, including the first reference to syphilis in children, and gave the best commentary up to his time on infa…

1569

#13117

Chirurgie françoise, avec plusieurs figures des instrumens nécessaires pour l'opération manuelle.

Daléchamp, a pupil of Guillaume Rondelet, received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Montpellier in 1547; he settled in Lyons in 1552, where he remained for the rest of his life. His Chirurgie françoise…

1572

#13547

Instruction sur l'herbe petum ditte en France l'herbe de la Royne ou Medicée: Et sur la racine MECHIOCAN principalement (avec quelques autres simples rares et exquis) exemplaire à manier philosophiquement tous autres vegetaux.

The earliest treatise in French on tobacco, including its usage in medicine, and probably the earliest separate treatise on tobacco in any language. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. See Bowen,…

1573

#534.51

Deux livres de chirurgie. I. De la generation de l’homme… II. Des monstres tant terrestres que marins avec leurs portraits.

Many reports of real malformations are intermixed with mythical accounts. English translations, 1634, and later. Recent English translation, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1982. Digital facsimile of the 1573 ed…

1575

#5565

Les oeuvres de M. Ambroise Paré.

Paré was the greatest of the army surgeons before Larrey. Born in poor circumstances, he became the most famous surgeon in France. He is particularly remembered for his abandonment of boiling oil and the cautery (No. …

1578

#5372.1

De febre purpura epidemiali et contagiosa libri duo.

Coytard distinguished between petechial typhus and typhoid.

1580

#13731

Les statutz et ordonnances royalles faictes par les roys de France, sur l'estat de barbier-chirurgien part tout le royaume de France, et confirmé par le roy Henry III de ce nom, roy de France et de Pologne [Mai 1575-13 août 1578].

The first regulations for barber surgeons published in France. https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb338125216

1581

#6236

Traitte nouveau de l’hysterotomotokie, ou enfantement caesarien.

Rousset records 15 successful Caesarean sections carried out by various persons during the preceding 80 years.

1582

#3668.3

Recherche de la vraye anathomie des dents, nature et propriété d’icelles.

The first French book on dentistry.

1585

#5818

Traité des maladies de l’oeil.

The first French work on ophthalmology. Guillemeau was a pupil and son-in-law of Ambroise Paré; his book was an epitome of the existing knowledge on the subject, chiefly from Greek and Arabian sources. English transla…

1586 –1587

#13118

Historia generalis plantarum. In libros XVIII. per certas classes artificiose digesta, Haec, plusquam mille imaginibus plantarum locupletior superioribus, omnes propemodum quae ab antiquis scriptoribus Graecis, Latinis, Arabibus, nominantur : necnon eas quae in Orientis atque Occidentis partibus, ante seculum nostrum incognitis, repertae fuerunt, tibi exhibec. Habes etiam earundem plantarum peculiaria diuersis nationibus nomina: habes amplas descriptiones, è quibus singularum genus, formam, vbi crescant & quo tempore vigeant, natiuum temperamentum, vires denique in medicina proprias cognosces. Adiecti sunt Indices, non solùm Graeci et Latini, sed aliarum quoque linguarum, locupletissimi. 2 vols.

The "most complete botanical compilation of its time and the first to descrbie much of the flora peculiar to the region around Lyons" (DSB). Digital facsimile from Bibloteca digital, Real Jardín Botanico at this link.

1594

#3669

La chirurgie françoise recueillie des antiens médecins et chirurgiens.

Guillemeau was Paré’s son-in-law. His splendidly illustrated work is of special importance for dentistry and for surgery for cleft lip. It describes pyorrhea alveolaris for the first time and is also the first work to…

1594

#10373

Alphabet anatomic, auquel est contenue l'explication exacte des parties du corps humain: Réduites en tables selon l'ordre de dissection ordinaire, avec l'ostéologie et plusieurs observations particulières. Avec l'osteologie, & plusieurs observations particulieres.

This innovative didactic work divided the study of anatomy into 91 tables, set in type, but without images. It was unusually popular, with eleven editions in the seventeenth century as well as translations into Latin …

1597

#802

Opusculum physiologum & anatomicum in duos libellos distinctum: In quibus primùm, de integritatis & corruptionis virginum notis, deinde, de grauiditate & partu naturali mulierum in quo ossa pubis & ilium distrahi, dilucidè tractatur ....

In 1595 Pineau demonstrated the vestigial foramen ovale in the adult heart, settling the question of the perviousness of the septum of the heart. His work was first published in 1597. He published this study in a fran…

1597

#437

Anatomica corporis virilis et muliebris historia.

1598

#13347

Onomatologia, seu nomenclatura stirpium quae in Horto Regio Monspeliensi recens constructo coluntur.

The first catalogue of medicinal plants in the Jardin des plantes de Montpellier, founded by Richer de Belleval in 1593. This was the first medical botanical garden in France. Reprinted in Opuscules de Pierre Richer d…

1599

#13240

Hippostologie, c’est a dire, discours des os du cheval.

The first work on equine anatomy published in France. Héroard wrote the work in 1579 and the manuscript was preserved in the library of Château de Chantilly, but it was not published until 1599, one year after the pub…

1608

#13205

Le Jardin du Roy tres chrestien Henry IV Roy de France et de Navarre dedie a la Royne.

Text by Robin, illustrations by Vallet. "The first important florilegium," (Blunt, The art of botanical illustration, 89-91). Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

1609

#3806

De mirabili strumas sanandi.

An early historical record of goitre which du Laurens maintained was contagious. Du Laurens was at one time physician to Henri IV.

1609

#6145

Observations diverses sur la sterilité, perte de fruict, foecondité, accouchements, et maladies des femmes, et enfants nouveaux naiz.

The first book on obstetrics published by a midwife. Louise Bourgeois was accoucheuse to the French court. She was one of the pioneers of scientific midwifery; her Observations was the vade mecum of contemporary midwi…

1609

#6145.1

De l’heureux accouchement des femmes.

Actual origin of the so–called “Mauriceau” manoeuvre, usually credited to Mauriceau (No. 6147). Guillemeau was not only responsible for this technique for delivery of the after coming head so important before the forc…

1609

#11505

Le iardin, et cabinet poetique de Paul Contant, apoticaire de Poictiers.

Written in verse, this is the first catalogue of a private botanical garden published in France, and the first book that could be called a French catalogue of a natural history museum. Digital facsimile from the Inter…

1612

#9518

Traité des hermaphrodits parties génitales accouchements des femmes et traitement qui est requis pour les relever en santé, et bien élever leurs enfants. Où sont expliquez la figure des laboureur, et verger du genre humain, signes de pucelage, defloration, conception, et la belle industrie dont use nature en la promotion du concept et plante prolifique.

In 1601 the Rouen physician Duval was summoned by the Rouen parlement to examine Marie Le Marcis, who at the age of 20 had discovered she was a man and had determined to marry, only to be imprisoned for lesbianism and…

1614

#13381

Discours sur les hermaphrodits. Où il est demonstré contre l'opinion commune, qui'il n'y a point de vrays hermaphrodits.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

1614

#13382

Responce au discours fait par le sieur Riolan docteur en medecine & professeur en chirurgie & pharmacie à Paris, contre l'Histoire de l'hermaphrodit de Rouen.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.

1616

#2092

De novo et populari apud Pictones dolore colico bilioso diatriba.

Citois described Poitou colic, “colica Pictonum”, in great detail, and it was this description which was responsible for the condition being recognized as a definite syndrome. Partial English translation in No. 2241.

1617

#13780

Discursus medico-philosophicus de casu adolescentis [...]: qui [...] mortuus in quodam paternarum aedium loco, adjacente ipsi serpente, à domesticis inventus fuit.

An extensively illustrated work on death from snake bites and species of venomous snakes instigated by the sudden death from snake bite of an otherwise healthy young man. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this…

1620

#3244.1

Question chirurgicale par laquelle il est demonstré que le chirurgien doit assurément practiquer l’opération de la bronchotomie, vulgairement dicte Laryngotomie ou perforation de la fluste tuyau du polmon.

Four successful cases. Scott Stevenson and Guthrie (see No. 3342) state that Brasavola performed laryngotomy (in 1546) and that Sanctorius also did so.

1622

#12529

La fleur des remèdes contre le mal des dents.

Digital facsimile of the second editiion "reveue corrigée & augmentée de nouveau" also printed in 1622 from BnF Gallica at this link. Translated into English by Jacques R. Fouré, edited by Milton B. Asbell as The flow…

1624

#2971

De tumoribus praeter naturam libri quinque. Ex instructissima Bibliotheca Ranchiniana eruti, & publici iuris facti, cura & studio Henric Gras...Accessit Ioannis Saportae Tractatus de lue venerea.

IN 1554 Saporta gave the earliest description of an aortic aneurysm. Many years after Saporta's death Henri Gras of Lyon discovered the manuscript of Saporta's book, and edited it for publication. Digital facsimile fr…

1627

#2196

De febribus libri iv. Accessit ad calcem; ejusdem de dysenteria tractatus.

An important monograph on fevers.

1628

#11499

Les oeuvres de Jacques et Paul Contant pere et fils maistres apoticaires de la ville de Poictiers. Divisées en cinq traictez. 1. Les commentaires sur Dioscoride. 2. Le second Eden. 3. Exagoge mirabilium naturae e gazophylacio. 4. Synopsis plantarum cum ethymologiis. 5. Le jardin & cabinet poëtique ....

Jacques and Paul Contant were Huguenot apothecaries in Poitiers, and notable collectors. There were among the first in France to assemble a cabinet of curiosities or Wunderkammer. The first work, a commentary on Diosc…

1634

#12611

Opuscula medica senilia in quatuor libros tributa, quorum I. De dentibus. II. De rationali curandi ratione. III. De facultatibus medicamentorum, praecipud purgantium. IV. De morbo regio. Omnia nunc primum ex MS. Bibliotheca Romana in lucem data: ad singulare philiatrorum, omniumque sane philosophantium emolumentum, adiectis indicibus necessariis.

1635

#8953

Canadensium plantarum, aliarúmque nondum editarum historia.

First description of the Canadian Flora. Cornut was a French botanist and physician who never visited North America, but instead received the majority of his plant specimens from the Robins family, who supervised the …

1638

#1824

Codex medicamentarius seu pharmacopoeia Parisiensis .

PHARMACOPOEIA

First Paris pharmacopoeia. SEE J. Bergounioux, "Les éditions du Codex Medicamentarius de l'ancienne Faculté de Médecine de Paris," Rev. d'Hist. Pharm, 54 (1927) 376-389

1639

#6796

Definitionum medicinarum liber.

A glossary of Hippocratic terms.

1640

#1673

Epidemiorum et ephemeridum libri duo.

A pupil of Fernel, De Baillou was a follower of Hippocrates in his advancement of the doctrine of “epidemic constitutions”. Crookshank regards him as the first modern epidemiologist. This work includes the first descr…

1640

#13346

L'ouverture du Jardin Royal de Paris, pour la demonstration des plantes medecinales.

La Brosse founded the Jardin des Plantes (originally Jardin du Roi), the first botanical garden in Paris. It was the second garden of this type in France, after the Jardin des plantes de Montpellier founded in 1593. D…

1642

#4485

Liber de rheumatismo et pleuritide dorsale.

De Baillou is usually credited with introducing the term “rheumatism”. He was court physician in Paris at the time of Henri IV. His book, the first on rheumatism, was translated into English by C. C. Barnard in Brit. …