{"product_id":"9780956542328","title":"The Surgeon's Apprentice","description":"Born on Christmas Day 1610 in a Flanders cowshed, Frans Michielszoon van Raveyck grows up to become one of the most singular minds of the 17th century: surgeon, inventor, engineer, explorer, astrologer and proto-scientist, employed at various times - and with somewhat mixed results - in the service of most of the kings of Christendom.\u003cp\u003eThis first volume of his biography takes us from his humble nativity through his family's flight to England, his apprenticeship as a surgeon there, and finally to his involvement aboard a Dutch warship in the disastrous naval expedition to Cadiz in the autumn of 1625; an enterprise regarded by connoisseurs of incompetence as the worst-conducted military operation in Britain's entire history. Which young Frans, however, observing the chaos around him, attributes to the expedition having neglected to take a good astrologer along with it...\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"John Biggins Fiction","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49988692214000,"sku":"9780956542328","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780956542328_p0.jpg?v=1784242910","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780956542328","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}