From Greece to Rome, from Rome to Alexandria, from Alexandria to Baghdad, from Baghdad to Padua… medical knowledge had the book as its main tool, a book that also bears witness to the extraordinary continuity of the ethics of the medical profession, notably in its relationship with patients. Medical texts remain alive, as attested by numerous books annotated and commented on by physicians of several generations, sometimes in different languages.
Between the 7th and 16th centuries of the Common Era, the Arab-Muslim world profoundly marked medicine through a major evolution of both concepts and techniques. This long period opens and closes with a linguistic revolution: the shift from Greek to Arabic, then from Arabic to Latin, two privileged moments of questioning and debate.
Across the five themes of the exhibition route – translate, transmit, debate, experiment, heal – richly illuminated manuscripts, incunabula and printed books 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 practices of consultation, their recommendations for maintaining good health, the preparation of compound medicines…
The exhibition aims to raise awareness of medical knowledge as the product of a centuries-long mingling of people and influences, advocating tolerance and openness to others in times of identity-based withdrawal and certainties.