FRANCO, Pierre.

by Pierre Franco

£48,000 · Offered by Sokol Books

A very good copy of the rare, attractively illustrated first edition of this remarkable treatise on surgery by the French Franco, a pioneer in the treatment of hernias and removal of calculi. Born in Turriers of Haute-Provence to a modest family, Pierre Franco (or Francou, c. 1505-1578) was one of the greatest barber-surgeons of the XVI century. At the time, surgery was not a prerogative of physicians, but of a class of medical practitioners who in many cases would gain their experience and knowledge outside of universities. Franco did not receive any academic theoretical education: he became the apprentice of a hernia operator and worked as an itinerant surgeon for all his life. A Calvinist, he fled to Switzerland due to religious persecutions in 1541 and practiced in Lausanne as an operator of bladders, hernias and cataracts. After a brief period in Lyon, Franco went back to Lausanne where he lived until his death. Petit trait é is Franco s first work, a short textbook on "those branches of surgery commonly practised by hernia surgeons , including the topics of hernia, stones, cataract, harelip, amputations, pterygium, and tumours. This work is entirely based on the author s personal experience of thirty years: (Franco) gave us what he himself conceived and executed, uninfluenced by authority, and every line bears the stamp of originality (Pilcher). A great part of the volume is dedicated to the different types of hernias, and remarkably Franco here provides the first descr

• Binding: Hardcover

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