Book Review

摘要

How did the discourse of progress first emerge? What role did the scientific texts of the Ancien Régime play in this process? How did the Enlightenment read some of these medical, anatomical or philosophical texts? These are some of the questions addressed in this collective volume, edited by Frédéric Charbonneau. Through its nine splendid contributions (which can be found summarised at the end, alongside a very useful thematic index), the book traces the way in which some key figures of the so-called Scientific Revolution – specifically those related to the anatomical and medical sciences – were transformed into icons of scientific progress. From Andrea Vesalius to the Montpellier doctor Théophile du Bordeu, from Descartes to Newton, and from Cyrano de Bergerac to the Comte of Buffon, the book explores the collective elaboration of the discourse of progress and the coming about of scientific hagiography as part of that process. Along these lines, the book should not only be of interest to the historian of medicine or science, but also to the general historian, the philosopher of history, and to all those concerned with the practicalities required to give the living conditions of certain individuals the fictional character of a universal history of glory.