Le vent souffle sur Little Balmoral

Sophie Jomain

Description

Lommius was born in Buren (Gelderland), around 1527, and later gave himself the Latinized name Jodocus Lommius Buranus in his works. He studied medicine in Leuven (1549) and in 1554 he first became city doctor in Tournai. He knew Jean Fernel, professor of medicine in Paris. Together with Andreas Vesalius he stood at the deathbed of Anna van Buren, wife of William of Orange-Nassau, in Breda in November 1558. He published three works, of which his work on semiology Medicinalium observationum libri tres was by far the best known. At that time he was city doctor in Brussels. It is very likely that he later moved to Vienna as a court physician of Emperor Maximilian II, where he was responsible for the care of his children.

Towards the end of his life he had a function at the Court in Madrid, where he deceased in 1572. Lommius may be considered the founder of medical semiology and the first to devote a systematic study to it and develop it as a discipline. He warned against the abuse of traditional treatments such as bloodletting and purgations, as these are potentially dangerous and can lead to an avoidable death. Many consider him a representative and innovator of Hippocratic medicine.

Maurits Biesbrouck published a Dutch translation of book one of the 1543 Fabrica by Vesalius, as well as a Vesalius bibliography and a summary and discussion of the editions of his works and letters, both of which are updated every year at www.andreasvesalius.be.

Francis Van Glabbeek is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Antwerp. He is an orthopedic surgeon and vice chair of the orthopedic and traumatology department of the University Hospital Antwerp. At the Faculty of Medicine he is responsible for the musculoskeletal anatomy and the history of medicine.

Dr. Theodoor Goddeeris, born in 1942 in Kortrijk (Belgium), was an internist geriatrician at the AZ Groeninge in Kortrijk. He has a lifelong interest in the history of the sixteenth century and published on medieval numismatics. E-post: tgoddeeris[at]hotmail.com

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