Abstract: Although the use of French in medical publications progressed throughout the sixteenth century, Latin still dominated in certain fields of medicine. These disparities resulted from the organisation of corporations, the structure of studies, and the conception of knowledge and its transmission. The constitution of the corpuses designed for the education of surgeons questions their meaning: a provisional survey of the state of science or an intangible bible of knowledge? A minimal vade-mecum or a limit not to be crossed?
