97th DOG Annual Meeting 1999
V273
GUY DE CHAULIAC ( ?1300-1368 ):
BIOGRAPHY AND MANUSCRIPT OF A FAMOUS PHYSICIAN OF THE MIDDLE AGES
L. Bellwald
In France, his native country, he was a living legend already during his childhood. He studied medecine at the centres of medicine of his epoch, for example the universities of Montpellier, Paris, Bologna. In Montpellier even today they are proud of their famous teacher. He practiced in Montpellier, Lyons and Avignon. Contacts with Bohemia
are proved. During his journeys it is possible that he worked as a 'travelling physician'. Guy de Chauliac was very famous in Europe. So it was quite natural
that members of the French and German sovereign families searched his medical competence. John of Luxembourg (the Blind) came to Montpellier hoping for help for his eye-disease. Guy de Chauliac was the physician of three popes. So his accession to the most important libraries in Europe was easy.
His noteworthy manuscript, the "CHIRURGIA MAGNA", is probably the completest compendium of the medical knowledge of his time. A large chapter is concerned with ophthalmology. Guy de Chauliac gives examples of prescriptions, but also elaborate descriptions of surgical treatments.
Among others we find the description of the operation of the 'cataract'. He mentions most of the important physicians even before his epoch, eg Galen, Avicenna and others. So they had an indirect influence until recent times , for his manual remained a reference book up to the eighteenth century. Even today several beautiful manuscripts and a reprint of his "CHIRURGIA MAGNA" exist.
B.P. 1268, L-1012 Luxemburg
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