Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 140.1

HIERONYMUS BRUNSCHWIG (ca. 1450-ca. 1512) Dis ist das Buch der Cirurgia : Hantwirchung der Wundartzny. [Editions Medicina Rara] Druckerei Holzer [1971?] 1497 Number 82 of 2800 copies printed for members of Editions Medicina Rara Ltd. [6], ix-cxxviii [i.e. 126] leaves : col. Ill. 31 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 140

Published in 1497 by Johannes Gruniger at Strasbourg, the Cirurgia is the first illustrated textbook printed in the field of surgery. In his foreword, Brunschwig tells us that the book is intended for ‘future masters and their servants, the barbers and surgeons,’ and as a guide for general practice ‘when the surgeon living in lonely villages and castles far away from all aid, has to fall back on his own resources.’ For these rural (and, one suspects, under-educated) surgeons, Brunschwig wrote in contemporary German instead of Latin. And the great stresss given in his seven articles to the treatment of the most common ailments – wounds, fractures and dislocations – along with the addition of an anti-dotary, makes clear its intention as a practical handbook rather than a scientific treatise. The Cirurgia is mainly a work of compilation, drawing upon the more theoretical texts of the past. By the 14th c. the works of Theodoric of Cervia, Lanfranco (Heirs #106), Guy de Chauliac (Heirs #107), and Henry of Mondeville (Heirs #95) were available in German translations. Through them Brunschwig became acquainted with Galen (Heirs #36), Paul of Aegina (#52), and the great Arab surgeons. But the Cirurgia is not merely a digest of more scholarly works. In the tradition of 15th c. German surgery, common sense and experience play an important role. Brunschwig was never an army surgeon (unlike his predecessor Heinrich von Pfalzpeunt), and all his cases were taken from civil practice. He frequently describes his own observations and cases – and herein lies the originality of the Cirurgia. Unlike Pfalzpeunt or Schenk he considers the Italian and French treatises, but being a man of practice, uses his experience to judge and criticize the authorities when necessary. There are some 50 large woodcuts and numerous smaller ones spread throughout the Cirurgia – about one every fifth page. In accordance with traditional practice we begin with a ‘wounded-man’ on the frontispiece – a diagrammatic figure containing a kind of graphic catalogue of common injuries. Such images may have been originally intended for the uneducated public who frequented barbershops for medical advice. The illustrations which follow are no more ‘scientific’ than the wound-man; their purpose is to adorn rather than explain the text.

See Related Record(s): 106 107 95 36 52

Gift of John Martin M.D.