La grande aventure du savoir médical

Curated by Dr. Philippe Abastado, clinical cardiologist and research director in epistemology applied to medicine at Paris 7 University, the exhibition explores the transmission of medical knowledge, from Antiquity to modern times. An adventure of man for man, medicine passes from one civilisation to another, despite wars and conflicts, despite political and economic vicissitudes, sometimes beyond religious and moral reservations.

From Greece to Rome, from Rome to Alexandria, from Alexandria to Baghdad, from Baghdad to Padua… medical knowledge has the book as its main tool, a book that also testifies to the extraordinary continuity of the medical profession's ethics, particularly in its relationship with patients.

Medical texts remain alive, as evidenced by numerous works annotated and commented on by doctors from several generations, sometimes in different languages.

Between the 7th and 16th centuries CE, the Arab-Muslim world profoundly influenced medicine through a major evolution in both concepts and techniques.

This long period opens and closes with a linguistic revolution: the transition from Greek to Arabic, then from Arabic to Latin, two privileged moments of questioning and debate.

In the five themes of the exhibition's journey – translating, transmitting, debating, experimenting, healing – sumptuously illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, and printed works illustrated with engravings occupy the heart of the presentation, alongside objects used in pharmacopoeia and surgery.

In parallel with the heritage collection, digital animations invite visitors to discover the geography of this medical adventure, its great figures, their theories on the body, their consultation practices, their recommendations for maintaining good health, the manufacture of compound medicines… The exhibition aims to raise awareness of medical knowledge as the product of a multi-century blend of people and influences, advocating tolerance and openness to others in our times of identity retrenchment and certainties.