The Medieval Surgery

by Tony Hunt

The medieval origins of current medical practice continue to be a subject of great interest. Tony Hunt has undertaken pioneer work in this field, and now presents, for the first time, the complete set of illustrations which accompany a 13th-century Anglo-Norman translation of Roger of Parma's Surgery (c. 1180), which was the first original treatise on surgery to be written in the medieval West. His commentary on the illustrations relates the drawings precisely to the sections of text they illustrate and thus provides more accurate identification of the different medical treatments depicted by the artist than has previously been the case. These distinctive drawings, almost without parallel in 13th-century England, show a consummate medical illustrator at work, uniquely combining technical, aesthetic and psychological interests. While the illustrations, which were added after the manuscript had been executed, performed a useful function as guide-marks to the contents of the surgical trea