After receiving his M.D. at Avignon in 1667, Duverney became one of the greatest anatomists at Le Jardin du Roi in Paris. He belonged to a group of anatomists, known as the 'Parisians', who collaborated closely with one another in preparing and describing dissections of animals and humans. He was responsible for the dissections used by J.F. Gautier d'Agoty in his anatomical atlases. His best known work, this treatise on otology, was first published in French as Traité de l'organe de l'ouie at Paris in 1683. A Latin translation appeared in 1730, and was followed in 1737 by an English version with the title A treatise of the organ of hearing, translated by John Marshall. Duverney's treatise was the first scientific monograph on the structure, function, and diseases of the ear. For the first time the arteries, veins, and nerve branches of the auricle were depicted. Duverney was also the first to suggest the resonance theory of hearing, later developed by Helmholtz. Tractatus de organo auditus contains sixteen folded engraved plates, drawn by Reynier Blokhuysen, to the highest standards. For the English version of 1737 (reissued in 1741) the plates were re-engraved by B. Cole.