Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 149

HANS VON GERSDORFF (ca. 1455-1529) Feldtbuch der Wundartzney. Bey Hans Schotten 1530 [6] cvi ll., 27 plates (2 fold. in facsimile). 19.3 cm.

Gersdorff was a military surgeon who had gained wide experience during the course of some forty years of campaigning and was an expert in the care and treatment of battlefield injuries. His work is divided into four books which treat of anatomy, surgery, leprosy, and glossaries of anatomical terms, diseases, and medications. Gersdorff emphasized a well-founded knowledge of anatomy because the surgeon was frequently called upon to deal with extensive bodily trauma. He derived his anatomy primarily from the Arabic authors and works of Guy de Chauliac (see No. 107 ff.). The surgical portion of the work was devoted to wound surgery and covers in some detail the methods he employed for extracting foreign objects and amputating limbs. He used a tourniquet to control bleeding when amputating and covered the stump with the bladder of a bovine or swine to help control postoperative hemorrhaging. He also included information on various remedies and medications that might be employed by the surgeon. Of special interest are the sedatives and analgesics, although he appears not to have employed them in his practice. The section on leprosy is given over largely to remedies for a disease he did not believe could be cured. The final part of the book consists of a series of Latin-German glossaries containing anatomical terms, diseases, and some 800 simples of animal, mineral, and plant origin. The book contains many woodcuts, attributed to Hans Wechtlin (b. ca. 1480), which depict anatomy, surgical operations, and surgical instruments and devices. Herrlinger comments that "The illustrations . . . belong to the early phase of 16th-century medical illustration and represent one of its high points" (History of medical illustration. London, 1970. p. 142). The practical nature of Gersdorff's book and its fine illustrations caused it to become very popular and it was frequently referred to, widely quoted, and freely plagiarized. The work went through at least twelve editions between the time of its first publication in 1517 and the early seventeenth century. The book also appeared in several Latin and Dutch editions.

See Related Record(s): 107

Cited references: Cushing G200; Durling 2059 (1517 ed.); Garrison-Morton 5560 (1517 ed.); Waller 3506 (1517 ed.); Wellcome 2761.

Gift of John Martin, M.D.