PASTEUR, Louis (1822-1895)

Lot 209
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Lieu de l'événementRoyaume-Uni, London
Commissionsee on Website%
ID 1514363
Lot 209 | PASTEUR, Louis (1822-1895)
Valeur estimée
£ 3 000 – 4 000
PASTEUR, Louis (1822-1895)
Discours prononcé dans la séance publique tenue par l'Académie française … le 27 avril 1882. Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1882.
An important presentation copy, inscribed by the author to Joseph and Agnes Lister, of the first edition of Pasteur’s address celebrating his election to the Académie française.

Joseph Lister (1827-1912) was a British surgeon celebrated as the pioneer of antiseptic surgery. He married Agnes Syme in 1856, the eldest daughter of his mentor, James Syme, a leading surgical teacher of the time. Their marriage was close and supportive, with Agnes playing an active role in Lister’s professional life, often collaborating with him in his research and experiments. Joseph Lister’s groundbreaking work in antiseptic surgery was directly inspired by Louis Pasteur’s germ theory. After reading Pasteur’s research on microorganisms and fermentation, Lister hypothesized that surgical infections were caused by airborne germs, leading him to develop antiseptic techniques using carbolic acid which dramatically reduced post-surgical mortality. The two men maintained a cordial relationship, exchanging letters and meeting at the International Medical Congress in 1881. Pasteur even offered Lister access to his experimental vaccines, reflecting their mutual respect and shared commitment to combating infection and disease.

In this address to mark his election to the Académie française, Pasteur offers a warm eulogy for his predecessor, the lexicographer and positivist philosopher Émile Littré, praising his monumental work on the French language (Dictionnaire de la langue française) while also expressing their philosophical differences. He attributes the honour of his election not to himself but to science, emphasizing the power and importance of the experimental method inherited from the likes of Galileo, Pascal, and Newton. Pasteur goes on to offer a summary of his philosophy, including the metaphysical: ‘The idea of God is a form of the idea of infinity […] Where are the true sources of human dignity, of liberty and of modern democracy, if not in the notion of the infinite before which all men are equal?’. This issue, possibly an offprint, does not contain the Réponse of Ernest Renan.

Quarto (280 x 225mm). 20th-century blue cloth preserving the original green printed wrappers (wrappers rubbed and laid down). Provenance: Joseph (1827-1912) and Agnes (1834-1893) Lister (presentation inscription by the author on front endpaper: ‘À Mr et Mme Lister / Respectueux homage et affectueux souvenir / L. Pasteur’) – Royal Society of Medicine (ink stamp on title, label and stamp on binding).
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