Antoine Louis
Videos
Antoine Louis was a French surgeon and physiologist. He was originally trained in medicine by his father, a sergeant major at a local military hospital. As a young man he moved to Paris, where he serv
Professor Antoine Louis in 1778
Mémoire contre la légitimité des naissances prétendues tardives, 1764
Guillotine
Videos
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The cond
Antoine Louis
…held for 40 years. In 1764 he was appointed lifetime secretary to the Académie Royale de Chirurgie. Louis is credited with designing a prototype of the guillotine. For a period of time after its invention, the guillotine was called a louisette. However, it was later named after French physician Joseph Ignace…
The guillotine used in Luxembourg between 1798 and 1821
A replica of the Halifax Gibbet on its original site in Halifax, West Yorkshire, in 2008
The original Maiden, introduced in 1564 and used until 1716, now on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh
Portrait of Joseph-Ignace Guillotin after whom the guillotine was named