Antoine Chalmette - Enchiridion de Chirurgie - 1562

CHALMETTE, ANTHOINE [CHALMETEUS, ANTHONIUS].
Enchiridion on Surgery, composed by M. Antoine Chalmete, physician of Annonay in Vivarais. With a Treatise on sexually transmitted diseases, great venereal diseases, and other venereal eruptions. Lyon: 1562.

In-8° Full flexible contemporary calfskin with covers, straps and original clasps preserved.
A true jewel of Renaissance medical bibliophily: the 1562 edition of the famous Enchiridion (pocket manual) by the physician and surgeon of Annonay, Antoine Chalmette.

Published in the vernacular French so that it would be immediately accessible to barber-surgeons on the battlefields and in their shops, this work became one of the most consulted surgical manuals of the late 16th century. It offers a comprehensive overview of operative practices, traumatology, cauterization of arquebus wounds, treatment of fractures and dislocations, as well as ophthalmology and dermatology.

This volume is especially precious due to the presence of the Treatise on venereal diseases ("des grands verolles, & autres boutons veneneux"), one of the first French medical texts to describe in detail the treatment of the " Naples disease" (syphilis) using guaiac, sarsaparilla, and mercurial frictions.

A precious copy kept in its original flexible calfskin binding with covers. The binding shows a very beautiful 16th-century patina with its straps and original fastenings, a rare testimony for a practitioner’s medical book that was daily handled. Interior on strong period laid paper, sharp typography, with pale marginal damp-stains or signs of usage that do not affect the readability of the sheets. The title page is missing.

The date 1562 is not incidental: it is the exact year of the outbreak of the Wars of Religion in France (marked by the massacre at Wassy).

Antoine Chalmette, Protestant physician practicing in Vivarais (Ardèche), designed this Enchiridion (from Greek en-cheir, “one that is in hand”) so that it could slip directly into the pocket or leather satchel of a military surgeon riding across the battlefield. While the great Ambroise Paré wrote for kings and general staffs in Paris, Chalmette composed the true emergency survival guide intended for provincial surgeons facing firearm injuries and syphilis epidemics ravaging the armies.

To find a copy of this Enchiridion from 1562 in its practitioner’s flexible binding with clasp is a bibliophile’s miracle, as most of these field volumes were destroyed or worn to the bone by blood and antiseptics!

Exceptional ancient medical/surgical provenance (Master Surgeon Allart in Namur).