The Plague in the south of France. 1723
[BERTRAND, Jean-Baptiste].
Relation historique de tout ce qui s’est passé à Marseille pendant la dernière peste.
Cologne, Pierre Marteau, 1723.
450 €
12mo (15.9x9 cm), (12)-472-(3)-(1 bl.) pages.
binding: Full sheep, spine gilt in six compartments, lacking lettering piece.
Binding slightly rubbed, caps and corners worn.
Second edition, published two years after the original edition.
Jean-Baptiste Bertrand (1670-1752) was born in Martigues, where he worked after receiving doctor in Montpellier.
It is a valuable testimony and the best medical relationship of plague that ravaged the south of France in 1720. Bertrand seems to have sensed the origin of the illness, saying at the same time Goyffon and independently of him, that the plague is caused by extremely small insects and invisible.
