'Sire, Versailles is where you need to be sick!' This was the rude reminder of his duties received on 29 April 1774 by king Louis XV, who had taken to his bed in the Petit Trianon, from his friend the surgeon La Martinière.

François Iselin, a surgeon with a passionate interest in the history of medicine, recounts the extraordinary social ascent of Germain Pichault, the young barber-surgeon apprentice who went on to become the First Surgeon to king Louis XV.

Author : François Iselin
Jointly published by: Etablissement public du château, du musée et du domaine national de Versailles / Librairie Académique Perrin
Collection : Les métiers de Versailles, September 2010
220 pages
language : French
ISBN : 9782262032654

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