From the author of Medicine: A Graphic History (100,000 copies sold), the history of a forgotten figure in France's invention of modern medicine.

In the 16th century, the surgeon's profession was as yet little-known. It was practiced by barbers, since they alone had the skill to wield sharp implements, acting under supervision from physicians. Medicine was the province of scholars, as opposed to surgery, relegated to an inferior rank and left to uneducated laborers. Ambroise Paré was a simple barber from humble origins. Self-taught, he read no Latin, but his inquisitive, rebellious mind, his unusual common sense, and his experience tending to the wounded on battlefields contributed to founding a discipline that would soon become a science.