1 / 2
Description
[MEDICINE]
FODERE (François Emmanuel, 1764–1835)
François-Emmanuel Fodéré was a Savoyard physician and botanist. He is regarded as ‘the father of forensic medicine’.
The Competition for the Establishment of the Chair of Forensic Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine in Strasbourg (27 January – 2 February 1814) [It should be noted that the Faculty of Medicine at Strasbourg was the first in Europe to establish a Chair of Forensic Medicine]
A collection of the four printed theses by the candidates for this Chair:
- FODERE: On Infanticide.
- MURAT: On poisoning by plant substances.
- LOBSTEIN: A reasoned outline of a course in forensic medicine.
- RISTELHUEBER: On premature and post-term births.
These four theses are preceded by a very significant handwritten page by Foderé, recounting the circumstances of this competition and how this scholar took part …
"" Regarding the competition for the Chair of Forensic Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine in Strasbourg, which opened on 1 January and concluded on 12 February 1814 at 8 o’clock in the evening, whilst the city of Strasbourg was under tight siege by Prussian and Baden troops, on the occasion of the coalition of all the princes of Europe against Napoleon Buonaparte, a native of Ajaccio in Corsica, who had made himself Emperor of the French and ruled over them as a true despot for fifteen years, after having destroyed civil liberty, which had made all the powers of Europe tremble and which in turn succumbed on 1 April 1814, following a battle lost beneath the walls of Paris on 30 March; defeated more by his frenzied pride than by his enemies. The blockade of Strasbourg was lifted on 4 May.
I arrived in Strasbourg on 31 December 1813, pressed by the enemy forces advancing on the city … My age [Fodéré was then 50 years old] and my work in various branches of medicine, particularly forensic medicine—of which I am the foremost advocate in France—did not seem to have made much of an impression on my judges, nor did they in any way spare me the full rigour of the trials [...].
I have had the main documents relating to this competition compiled so that they may be passed on to my descendants, and I have written this brief note to encourage my children to practise virtue, to work hard, and to persevere nobly in useful and honourable pursuits, whatever difficulties they may encounter.
Strasbourg, 12 May 1814.
Em. Fodéeré, aged 51. ""
4 booklets, one folding poster announcing the competition.
Large in-4° format. Original binding in poor condition. Cover detached. Spine missing.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
ID: 89135524
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like