Forensic medicine in Bordeaux in the 16th century.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Renaissance was accompanied by a real cultural revolution in Europe and France. Montaigne, the Bordeaux humanist and writer, was highly involved in this movement, particularly by his thinking on medicine, physicians, and illness. The 2 forensic reports presented are the oldest known testimonies of forensic medical activity in Bordeaux in the 16th century. They concern a visit to prison in 1556 and the solemn transfer of the body of a man hanged in 1579. The authors also describe how necropsies were performed before 1573 in Bordeaux, the year in which medical studies were reformed. However, the first official teaching of forensic medicine in Bordeaux (Ecole Royale de Médecine) began only in 1814.