MARTIN Bernardin Dissertation sur les dents.

Krivatsy, 7490 (under Barthélémy Martin) ; David, p.190 ; Poletti, p.131 ; Weinberger, p.94 ;

First edition, very rare, of a founding text of French odontology.

Martin’s main book, Dissertation sur les dents, is one of the first French texts on teeth. This book was published 50 years before Pierre Fauchard’s seminal work.

Martin’s treatise adopts, as its name suggests, a discursive approach: from an analysis of the nature of teeth to a long and detailed reflection on the dangers that lie in wait for them, he attempts to offer the reader an exhaustive view of the subject. From the outset, the author emphasises the necessity of his project: ‘This Treatise will undoubtedly at first seem unimportant to many people, most of whom are aware that the ancient and modern authors who have written about the infirmities of the human body have only superficially discussed matters relating to the teeth. However, they have a greater impact than one might imagine, since they can cause fatal accidents.’

In addition to the surgical aspect addressed in this work (which is all the more remarkable given that Martin has no training in this field), he offers ‘hygienic’ advice on how to care for the teeth to avoid any pathological development: ‘Some people use Damascus grapes applied to the tooth: hare marrow is good for it, blood from a rooster’s comb, woodlice, mole legs hung around the child’s neck […]’. These words, which seem rather grotesque – or at least worthy of wacky healers – probably refer to a Spanish work that Martin drew considerable inspiration from for his Dissertation, the Coloquio breve y compendioso by Francisco Martinez, published in 1557. At the time a chemist in the household of the Prince de Condé, Barthélemy Martin (1629-1682), whose real name was Bernardin Martin, discovered this work, which was unknown in France at the time. In this text, which is one of the very first works in Europe to deal solely with odontology, Martinez adopts a comic angle by depicting villagers discussing their dental problems in the village square. Martin, in his Dissertation, maintains the farcical tone, borrowing ideas and advice from his Spanish counterpart, sometimes in whole passages. This choice, apparently surprising for a methodical medical text, is the result of the author’s desire for completeness, as he wants to review the remedies used in his time.

In any case, Martin’s study remains fundamental in that it is the second French work devoted solely to odontology after Recherche de la vraye anathomie des dents, nature et propriétés d’icelles by Urbain Hémard, published in 1582. Urbain Hémard’s works were also a fundamental source of inspiration for Pierre Fauchard, who published the Chirurgien-dentiste ou Traité des dents in 1728, which is still one of the main references in the field of dental surgery.

The work, divided into fourteen chapters, offers a detailed study of teeth:

-Chap.I: On the nature of teeth. On how they differ from other bones and their sensitivity

-Chap.II: On the time & manner in which teeth are born. On their number & the names given to them

-Chap.III: Of the diseases of the Teeth when they are born; & of the means of preventing them

-Chap.IV: Why children are born without Teeth; & why they have no roots

-Chap.V: Of the falling out of the Teeth in childhood. Of their decay; & of what is to be observed to avoid their deformity

-Chap.VI: Of the great use of Teeth, & to what end they were given to us

-Chap.VII: Of the beauty & goodness of Teeth. Of their species & deformity

-Chap.VIII: Of the way in which Teeth may be preserved, & the regimen that should be observed in this regard

-Chap.IX: Of the duration of Teeth

-Chap.X: Of the illnesses & accidents that appear in the second dentition; & of the remedies that should be provided

-Chap.XI: That it is not always appropriate to have one’s teeth pulled when one feels pain: And of certain popular errors on this subject

-Chap.XII: Of the third dentition

-Chap.XIII: Of the gums and their accidents

-Chap.XIV (or XIII bis, depending on the copy): Of the perfections and deformities of the gums

Very good copy of this rare and important book.