Medical School of Montpellier

The Faculty of Medicine, Montpellier. Image published under the Creative Commons Attribution 1.0 license

The medical school is located on the boulevard Henri IV and now forms part of Montpellier Universite 1.

It was founded in 1220 by the Papal Legate Cardinal Conrad von Urach and is the oldest surviving medical school in the world.

In 1289 it was merged with the law college, founded in 1242, in order to create Montpellier's first university.

The medical school has taught anatomy since 1340 and constructed the first anatomy theatre dedicated to the study of human corpses in 1556.

The medical school was once attended by the self-proclaimed prophet Nostradamus, also an apothecary, and Francois Rabelais, one of France's greatest literary figures.

The Museum of Anatomy, Montpellier. Image published under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, verison 1.2 or later

The Museum of Anatomy is attached to the medical school and is situated in the wing which faces the boulevard Henri IV.

It contains numerous wax dummies, plaster models,  surgical instruments and dissected anatomical specimens.

Amongst the most notable exhibits are the lifelike wax models created by the 18th century anatomists Felix Fontana and Jean-Baptiste Laumonier and the numerous vertebral columns which  facilitate comparative anatomical study.

Other exhibits include a collection of rare freaks of nature and defomed foetuses and a gruesome series of wax casts which depict the various stages of diseases such as gonorrhoea and cancer.

The ceiling and the walls of the museum are decorated with 19th century paintings by Thomas Baroffi and Jean-Pierre Monseret which depict famous medical and scientific figures and create trompe d'oeil effects through the clever use of perspective.

The medical school also possesses an extensive medical library notable for its mediaeval manuscripts, often beautifully illustrated, which cover many other subjects besides medicine and thus provide a fascinating insight into mediaeval life.

The library possesses a further fifty-nine manuscripts from the Carolingienne period (750 AD to 1000 AD) which are amongst some of the oldest in the world.

 

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