Records

Paré, A (1575). Les oeuvres de M. Ambroise Paré conseiller, et premier chirurgien du Roy avec les figures & portraicts tant de l'Anatomie que des instruments de Chirurgie, & de plusieurs Monstres. ……. Paris: Gabriel Buon.

The copy of the first edition of Paré’s works in the Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, from which the images of the text are taken, lacks its title page. The image of the title page below is from the copy in the Alfred Taubman Medical Library at the University of Michigan and is shown here by permission of that library.

Paré, A. translated by Walter Hammond. The method of curing wounds made by gun-shot. Also by arrows and darts, with their accidents……. London: Isaac Iaggard. 1617

Since it was his new method of treating gunshot wounds that made his international reputation, it is not surprising that the first English translation of any of Paré’s works was a version of his treatise on this subject translated by Walter Hammond, an English surgeon. Since Hammond mentions Paré’s ‘booke of voyages and travels’ which first appeared in the 1585 edition of the Oeuvres it is clear that the translation was made from one of the French editions of the work published between 1585 and 1614. The ‘man of wounds’ on the title page does not appear in any of Paré’s own works but versions of it appear in other works of the period on surgery. Hammond’s translation is now exceedingly rare; only two copies are known and one of these is imperfect. The image below is from the copy in the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford with whose permission it is shown here.

Johnson, T. The works of that famous chirurgeon Ambrose Parey, … London: Mary Clark for John Clark, 1678.

This translation, first published in 1634, went through a number of editions. It is unfortunate that this, the only fairly complete English edition of Paré’s works, was derived from the less than perfect Latin editions; though the title claims ‘compared with the French’ it seems that Johnson’s French was not equal to the task. In spite of this, the Jacobean English of the translation suits Paré’s often racy style very well and the book is in many ways delightful, if not always very accurate. It also contains Paré’s Apology and Treatise, his fascinating account of his travels and military adventures first published in the Oeuvres of 1585, translated from the French by George Baker. The image below is from the copy in the Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.