Henri de Mondeville (1320) was a medieval French

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

who made a significant number of contributions to

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having i ...

and

surgery Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pa ...

, and was the first Frenchman to author a surgical treatise, ''La Chirurgie'' (1306-1320). Very little is known about the details of his early life. There is some doubt about his birthplace as according to ancient Norman custom, his last name is derived from the place of birth, and is variously spelled as Amondeville, Esmondeville, Mandeville and so on. He pursued his medical studies in

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people l ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, and he became a cleric and master in medicine and then went to

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

as a cleric-physician to work with Theodoric Borgognoni, who was one of the most prominent surgeons of the Medieval Period. Mondeville appreciated and used Borgognoni´s method of dressing wounds which was completely opposite to the practices at that time. Returning to France, he worked as a professor of anatomy and surgery at the

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier (french: Université de Montpellier) is a public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the oldest universities in the wor ...

between 13011304. He was appointed as a royal surgeon to King

Philippe Le Bel Philip IV (April–June 1268 – 29 November 1314), called Philip the Fair (french: Philippe le Bel), was King of France from 1285 to 1314. By virtue of his marriage with Joan I of Navarre, he was also King of Navarre as Philip I from 12 ...

(Philip the Fair) of France and he retained his position under

Louis X Louis X may refer to: * Louis X of France, "the Quarreller" (1289–1316). * Louis X, Duke of Bavaria (1495–1545) * Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse (14 June 1753 in Prenzlau – 6 April 1830 in Darmstadt) was '' ...

, serving in military expeditions against the English. He also started to teach surgery at the medical schools in Paris in 1308 and settled permanently in 1312. His royal duties ended after the death of Louis X in 1316. He carried on teaching and writing about surgery until his death around 1320 from what was believed to be tuberculosis.

''La Chirurgie''

In 1306, he started to write his unfinished manuscript ''La Chirurgie'' ("Surgery", translated from French) in Latin until 1320. Prioreschi in Ghosh states that "the book documents his professional views, as well as gives significant insights into the status of medicine and surgery in the 14th century". His work was never completed, only two of his intended five sections are completed. The manuscript was met with contention by his colleagues and immediate successors. It was not until 1892 that it was re-discovered by

Julius Leopold Pagel Julius Leopold Pagel (29 May 1851, Pollnow – 30 January 1912, Berlin) was a German physician and historian of medicine. Pagel was educated at the gymnasium at Stolp and at the University of Berlin (M.D. 1875). In 1876 he established hims ...

that it was considered important due to the development of antiseptic surgery in modern times. His work was influenced by the medical works of the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be o ...

and the Latin translations of

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic ...

's '' Canon of Medicine''. He was the first known surgeon to introduce the concept of aseptic management of wounds without inducing pus formation and applied it to injured soldiers. "Mondeville conducted the first unauthorized human dissection at the University of Montpellier in 1315, and his efforts were pivotal towards legalization of human dissection in France from 1340. His full-length illustrations marked a significant transformation in anatomical studies during those days, as human cadaveric dissection was prohibited and anatomists had to rely solely on textual descriptions prevalent from the ancient period."

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Monteville, Henri De 1316 deaths Year of birth uncertain 14th-century French physicians Medieval surgeons 14th-century French writers 13th-century French physicians