Fonctions de l’anecdote dans Les Œuvres Pharmaceutiques de Jean de Renou (1626)

Jean de Renou’s Pharmacopée (1626) fits in within the norms of classical rhetoric. His discourse is well structured, though its dispositio shows originality. As in the tradition, digressions are part of the rhetoric of the text, though in Renou, some of the digressions take the form of anecdotes based on the author’s experience as physician, thus giving to the work a modern tone and at times an ideological slant. In Antiquity, medicine made use of fabula to convey knowledge. In Renou’s digressions, the world of contemporary practice and experience makes an entry into learned medicine. In his use of a fabula moderna, we can detect the sign of a new interaction between ancient and contemporary medicine at the beginning of modern times.