Abregé de l'oeconomie du grand et petit monde, divisé en trois parties...

by Adrian Golles

Rouen: François Vaultier the Younger, 1670

[24], 255, 255-413, [17] p. | 12mo | ã^12 A-K^12 L^12(L7+chi1) M-R^12 S^12(-S11) | 142 x 90 mm

First and only edition of the provincial surgeon’s only book, a medical treatise blending the scientific and the spiritual. The author divides his work into three parts: (1) an overview of the various natural beings (estres naturels), including an examination of the soul; (2) a discussion of conception, the fetus, and birth, a comprehensive account that must have been useful for those tasked with delivery; and (3) a broad overview of the body and soul, which covers the heart, breathing, and blood circulation, in addition to some metaphysical topics. ¶ We learn from the preface that Golles has 40 years’ experience as a surgeon, a dozen of them as surgeon to the poor (Chirurgien ordinaire des pauvres). He wrote the book for the benefit of his young colleagues, covering everything that should make a skilled surgeon (toutes les parties qui peuvent faire un habile Chirurgien), with the hope that they might keep it readily available in their bag (pochette). Not for those accustomed to the privileges attending the most elite practitioners, he intended his work “especially for those who do not understand the diversity of languages, or who do not have many books, or who are far from or deprived of the assistance of doctors, where they will find only a part of the little experience and knowledge that I have acquired in the academies and hospitals of the best cities in France” (a7r). The author gained ample experience treating severely wounded soldiers in Dieppe, injured in skirmishes with the English (a7v-a8r). From this, he’s come to an opinion on what a good hospital requires: “a learned and experienced physician, as we have six or seven; a good surgeon; and a faithful apothecary” (a8v). ¶ Despite his chapters on the soul and his heavy reliance on ancient authorities, and despite at least one foot planted firmly in the humoral tradition, there’s no doubt the author considered himself a man of science. The book is packed with anatomy and observation. He’s familiar with the human body. His chapter on the circulation of blood opens with praise for William Harvey. He’s no trailblazer, that’s for sure, but he’s something no less revealing: a cog in the sprawling early modern medical machine. If only he’d stayed in his lane and kept silent on astronomy, where his brief comments cite Ptolemy as the lone authority... ¶ A less common perspective on early modern medicine, drawn not from the bedsides and classrooms of one of Europe’s great cities, but from personal experience in the northern reaches of provincial France.

PROVENANCE: A single early marginal note on p. 343, admiring a passage in which the author compares the heart’s role in the body to the sun’s role in the universe.

CONDITION: Contemporary limp parchment. ¶ Scattered mild soiling and dampstaining; first and last several leaves a bit ragged at the edges; dark stain in the lower inner corner at rear, affecting the index; final leaf nearly detached. Parchment soiled and cockled, with a little loss to the upper corner of the rear cover; front free endpaper tatty.

REFERENCES: Catalogue of Printed Books in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London, 1976), v. 3, p. 133

Item #403