Immediate precedents and successors of Laurent Joubert's <i>Erreurs populaires</i>

Abstract

In the wake of Natalie Z. Davis' suggestion that the physician established in Montpellier Laurent Joubert (1529-1582) inaugurated with his Errevrs Populaires a new "genre" of medical literature of "popular" character, possible immediate precedents and successors of the trend initiated by Joubert are brought up here. Among other offsprings, emphasis is given to Thomas Browne (1605-1682), whose Pseudodoxia Epidemica were also influenced by Francis Bacon (1561-1626). regarding precedents, not to mention the zeal of medical humanists to expurgate Medieval fallacie from Classical texts, attention is given in particular to "The rose garden for pregnant women and midwives" penned by Eucharius Roesslin (?-1526). Lastly, by way of conclusion, one asks whether it is suitable for the history of science to borrow from the art of literature the word "genre" to distinguish lineages of texts prevalent in the past.