[The Republic of Letters and French physicians on the eve of the French Revolution: the case of Esprit Calvet].
In the broad Republic of Letters of the second half of the eighteenth century, physicians played an important but singular role. The majority of them were forced to earn their daily bread, so only belonged to the Republic in their leisure hours. Inhabiting a double universe--the everyday world of their profession and the more refined world of their intellectual hobbies--they had to negotiate continually between the two. This liminal position of the citizen-physician is recaptured in this article through the example of a physician of the Midi, Esprit Calvet of Avignon (1728--1810). Calvet left a huge correspondence, thanks to which this duality between the practising physician and the citizen of the Republic of Letters can be studied in detail. On the one hand, this is a correspondence between the physician and his patients, augmented by letters between the physician and other physicians on medical topics. On the other hand, it is a correspondence between the physician and other men of science on non-medical subjects (archaeology, botany, bibliophily, poetry, etc.).
Brockliss
Laurence
L
Faculty of Modern History, University of Oxford, UK-Oxford, OX1 3BD. laurence.brockliss@magdalen.ox.ac.uk
D015709:Correspondence as Topic / Q000266:history*; D005602:France; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D010686:Philosophy, Medical / Q000266:history*; D010819:Physician's Role / Q000266:history*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000266:history*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000266:history*; D012586:Science / Q000266:history*