In January 1474, an archer sentenced to death in France reportedly avoided execution by agreeing to take part in an experimental surgical procedure intended to investigate the cause of his severe side pain and colic.
This episode appears in several works on the history of medicine, notably in “The Early History of Surgery” by William J. Bishop, which recounts the story as follows:
“In January, 1474, an archer of Meudon was condemned for many robberies, and especially for robbing the church at Meudon, to be hanged at Paris. He appealed to the Parlement which confirmed the sentence. Then the physicians and surgeons of the city represented to the king that many and divers persons were grievously molested and tormented by stone, colic, and pains in the side, with which the said archer was also much troubled, and that Monseigneur du Bouchaige (a favourite courtier mentioned by Comines) was sorely afflicted by the said maladies, and that it would be very useful to see the places where these maladies are concreted, and that this could be best done by vivisecting a human being, which could be well effected on the person of the said archer, who was also about to suffer death.
Which opening and incision was accordingly done on the body of the said archer, and the place of the said maladies having been sought out and examined, his bowels were replaced and he was sewn up again. And by the king’s command the wound was well dressed, so that he was perfectly healed within a fortnight, and he received a free pardon, and some money was given to him as well.”
From this brief account, a legend gradually emerged — one that evolved into a persistent myth in the history of French medicine. First, the archer’s vague symptoms were retrospectively reinterpreted as kidney or bladder stones. Second, a heroic figure was invented: the “brilliant” surgeon Germain Colot, allegedly trained in Italy, credited with pioneering this revolutionary operation. Third, later versions claimed that King Louis XI himself witnessed the procedure.
Antoine Rivoulon’s 1851 lithograph, held in the collection of the Irbit State Museum of Fine Arts, depicts precisely this mythical narrative — presented as the first recorded operation to remove kidney or bladder stones, performed by the legendary Germain Colot in the presence of the king. In the engraving, the archer appears strangely serene despite his vulnerable position. In the background, a heterogeneous crowd — representing various social classes — is rendered from multiple angles. Two figures stand on a raised platform between two trees, as though observing the scene.
