Henri_de_Monteville
Henri de Mondeville
French surgeon
Henri de Mondeville (c. 1260—1320) was a medieval French surgeon who made a significant number of contributions to anatomy and surgery, and was the first Frenchman to author a surgical treatise, La Chirurgie (1306-1320).[2] 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.[3]
He pursued his medical studies in Montpellier and Paris, and he became a cleric and master in medicine and then went to Bologna as a cleric-physician to work with Theodoric Borgognoni,[4] 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.[3]
Returning to France, he worked as a professor of anatomy and surgery at the University of Montpellier between 1301—1304.[3] He was appointed as a royal surgeon to King Philippe Le Bel (Philip the Fair) of France and he retained his position under Louis X, 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.[4] 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.[4]