Amé Bourdon
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and anatomist.
Bourdon was born in Cambrai
Cambrai
Cambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, in 1636 or 1638, the son of an engineer in the service of the Spanish Crown. Having studied science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
extensively, he decided to attend the university in Douai
Douai
-Main sights:Douai's ornate Gothic style belfry was begun in 1380, on the site of an earlier tower. The 80 m high structure includes an impressive carillon, consisting of 62 bells spanning 5 octaves. The originals, some dating from 1391 were removed in 1917 during World War I by the occupying...
at the age of 37. He practiced as a physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
in Cambrai
Cambrai
Cambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included...
for much of his life, and died on December 21, 1706. Little else is known of him.
In 1678, Amé Bourdon published his double folio anatomical plates, Nouvelles tables anatomiques, most likely through the assistance of his patron Jacques Theodore de Brias, archevêque de Cambrai. The work consists of 16 individual plates, several of which can be combined to form complete human figures. The plates, which were drawn by Bourdon himself, were created using the etching needle and the burin
Burin
Burin from the French burin meaning "cold chisel" has two specialised meanings for types of tools in English, one meaning a steel cutting tool which is the essential tool of engraving, and the other, in archaeology, meaning a special type of lithic flake with a chisel-like edge which was probably...
on copperplate and are signed by the engraver Daniel Le Bossu (fl.
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
1671-1678). Some copies were hand colored and possibly illuminated
Illuminated
Illuminated may refer to:* Illuminated dance floor, a floor with panels which light up with different colours* Illuminated Film Company, a British animation house...
by the publisher, as stated on the title page (plate [2]) and the entry for the work in the catalog of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
.
The anatomical images were labeled with letters and then later described by a small 12mo work, Nouvelle description anatomique de toutes les parties du corps humain, & de leurs usages, which was published in Cambrai
Cambrai
Cambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included...
in 1679.
External links
- Amé Bourdon: Nouvelles tables anatomiques. (Cambrai & Paris, 1678). Selected pages scanned from the original work. Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.