The Works of Francis Rabelais
by François Rabelais
François Rabelais (c. 1495-1553) was a physician, priest, and notable writer.[1] He began his career as a Humanist and was well studied in the classics.[2] Around 1521, he became a priest, but broke his vows in 1530 to study medicine.[3] He was one of the first, if not the first, physicians to dissect the human body.[4] In 1532 he became head physician at a hospital in Lyons, and he began to write.[5]
Rabelais’s writing is famous for its bawdy, satirical nature.[6] His style is so distinct, the Oxford English Dictionary includes the adjective “Rabelaisian” to describe writings with “earthy humour, [a] parody of medieval learning and literature, and [an] affirmation of humanist values.”[7]
His most famous books are Gargantua and Pantagruel, comprised of four books published from 1532 to 1535.[8] Framed as chivalric romances, these books use the theatrical language of vaudeville to satirize heroic works, traditional pedagogy, and humanist ideals.[9] He grotesquely caricatured people in a playful way, in a style extensively imitated by seventeenth and eighteenth century French writers.[10]
Bibliographic Information
Author: François Rabelais
Title: The Works of Francis Rebelais, M.D.
Published: London: Printed by J. Hughs for J. Brindley and C. Corbett, 1737.
Edition:
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in contemporary full calf bindings, blind tooled and gold ruled. Purchased from Book Den East.
References
- ↑ “Francois Rabelais, M.D.,” The British Medical Journal, 1, No. 4814 (BMJ Publishing Group, Apr. 1953), p. 831.
- ↑ “François Rabelais,” Encyclopædia Britannica Online (Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013), accessed October 28, 2013.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ “Francois Rabelais, M.D.,” The British Medical Journal.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ “François Rabelais,” Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
- ↑ “Rabelaisian, adj.,” Oxford English Dictionary (OED Third Edition, June 2008), accessed October 28, 2013.
- ↑ “François Rabelais,” Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Dorothy S. Packer, “François Rabelais, Vaudevilliste,” The Musical Quarterly, 57, No. 1 (Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 127.
