author
Monsieur Soulier
A physician sent from Paris during the devastating 1720 plague at Marseille, he is remembered today through a rare firsthand medical account of the crisis. His surviving work offers a vivid glimpse of how doctors observed, classified, and tried to treat epidemic disease in early 18th-century France.
1 Audiobook
A Succinct Account of the Plague at Marseilles Its Symptoms and the Methods and Medicines Used for Curing It
by François Chicoyneau, Monsieur Soulier, active 1720-1721 Monsieur Verny
About the author
Monsieur Soulier — also found as Soullier in English-language editions — appears in surviving records as one of the physicians sent from Paris to Marseille during the Great Plague of 1720. He is chiefly known as a co-author, alongside François Chicoyneau and Monsieur Verny, of A Succinct Account of the Plague at Marseilles.
That book was drawn up for the governor and magistrates of Marseille and describes the symptoms of the plague along with the methods and medicines the physicians used while treating the sick. Modern catalog and archive records identify Soulier mainly through this publication, and they suggest little biographical detail beyond his role as a physician active around 1720.
Because so little confirmed personal information survives, Soulier stands out less as a fully documented historical figure than as a witness to one of Europe’s last major plague outbreaks. His contribution remains valuable for readers interested in medical history, public health, and firsthand reports from a city in crisis.