La grande aventure du savoir médical

This exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe traces the transmission of medical knowledge from antiquity to the modern era, moving from Greece to Rome, Alexandria, Baghdad, and Padua. It highlights how books served as the primary vehicle for this knowledge, with manuscripts annotated by physicians across generations and languages.

Visitors can explore five themes—translating, transmitting, debating, experimenting, and healing—through sumptuously illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, and printed books with engravings, alongside objects used in pharmacy and surgery. Digital animations complement the collection, offering insights into the geography of this medical adventure, key figures, theories on the body, consultation practices, and the preparation of compound medicines.

The exhibition aims to foster awareness of medical knowledge as the product of centuries of cross-cultural exchange, promoting tolerance and openness in times of identity-based retreat and certainty.