Pierre Dalicourt i Sekret opóźniania starości (1668). Zarys lektury w kontekście translatio studii [Pierre Dalicourt and Le secret de retarder la vieillesse (1668). Prolegomena to the lecture in the context of translatio studii]

Abstract

In this article, an attempt is made to describe the way of ancient text elements in Frenchlanguage medical writing, prior to the publication of Dalicourt’s work. It enables to reconstruct three channels of antique medical knowledge transfer: physiological thought reflection (whose important documents in France are: the treatise On old age by Pierre du Lauriers and the textbook of surgery by Ambroise Paré), philosophical thought (Christian Neostoicism inspired by works of Seneca, Erasmus and Lipsius) and theology (which combines Judeo-Christian motifs with Greek-Roman ones through the Bible exegesis). Further, at the end of the work, a political dimension of Dalicourt’s discussion is signalled. The author, who dedicates his text to the chancellor Pierre Séguier, makes in a way reference to the antique discussions on gerontocracy.