Amé Bourdon (1636 or 1638 – December 21, 1706) was a French

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

Personal life

Bourdon was born in

Cambrai Cambrai (, ; ; ), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord department and in the Hauts-de-France region of France on the Scheldt river, which is known locally as the Escaut river. A sub-pref ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, in 1636 or 1638, the son of an engineer in the service of the

Spanish Crown The monarchy of Spain or Spanish monarchy () is the constitutional form of government of Spain. It consists of a Hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarch who reigns as the head of state, being the highest office of the country. The Spanish ...

. Having studied science extensively, he decided to attend the university in

Douai Douai ( , , ; ; ; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord département in northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe (rive ...

at the age of 37. He practiced as a physician in Cambrai for much of his life, and died on December 21, 1706. Little else is known of him.

Works

In 1678, Amé Bourdon published his double folio anatomical plates, ''Nouvelles tables anatomiques'', most likely through the assistance of his patron Jacques Theodore de Brias, archevêque de Cambrai. The work consists of 16 individual plates, several of which can be combined to form complete human figures. The plates, which were drawn by Bourdon himself, were created using the etching needle and the burin on copperplate and are signed by the engraver Daniel Le Bossu (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1671–1678). Some copies were hand colored and possibly

illuminated Illuminated may refer to: * Illuminated (song), "Illuminated" (song), by Hurts * Illuminated Film Company, a British animation house * ''Illuminated'', alternative title of Black Sheep (Nat & Alex Wolff album) * Illuminated manuscript See also

by the

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

, as stated on the title page (plate and the entry for the work in the catalog of the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

. The anatomical images were labeled with letters and then later described by a small 12mo work, ''Nouvelle description anatomique de toutes les parties du corps humain, & de leurs usages'', which was published in Cambrai in 1679.

References

*Choulant, L. ''History and bibliography of anatomic illustration.'' Trans. and annotated by Mortimer Frank. (New York: Hafner, 1962), p. 249. *''Dictionnaire de biographie française.'' (Paris: Letouzey et ané, 1933- ), vol. VI, col. 1450.

External links

Amé Bourdon: ''Nouvelles tables anatomiques.'' (Cambrai & Paris, 1678)
Selected pages scanned from the original work. Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bourdon, Ame French anatomists People from the Cambrésis (France) French biologists 1706 deaths 1630s births University of Douai alumni