François Tissard and his 1508 edition of the Hippocratic Oath

Abstract

A few years ago, a Greek text of the Hippocratic Oath (textus receptus) with an interlinear translation into Latin was (re)discovered in a book printed in 1508 in Paris. Its spiritus rector is François Tissard. This paper examines the nature of both the Greek and Latin versions of the Oath text and the rationale of including them in a book which contains an eclectic assemblage of texts in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. The paper also discusses the intellectual background of Tissard and his publishing programme, set up by Gilles de Gourmont. It addresses the social, political, pedagogical and religious implications of publishing a bilingual version of the Hippocratic Oath in 1508 in Paris, i.e. for the first time in the history of printing, and attempts to accommodate this "editio princeps" (at least for the present) within the textual history of the Hippocratic Oath.