Digital Objects

The book is a treaty about surgery titled Al-Tsarif, and it is one of the most significant works of the Middle Age because of the synthesis of the essential medical knowledge of that age. Among the subjects included in the book, there are surgery and medical science, diet and pharmacology. The interesting aspect of this book and partially one of its success is integrating theory and practice. The book was written as a handbook to train the medical students at the private school Abulcasis opened in Spain. The book is part of a collection of thirty-nine Arabic manuscripts related to Arabic medicine's most important subject. There are several editions of the manuscript XXX translated by Gerard of Cremona in 1187 AD printed in 1497, 1499 and 1500 in Venice. There are other partial translations in French, English, and Spanish if the same age. The book started to be used as a manual of reference in the Western and Eastern schools of medicine of Middle Age Europe. The value of this text is the integration of theory and practice and at the same time, the references to the other medical works of Greek and Arabic medicine. For that reason, this book has been considered the manual of surgery at the Salerno School for five centuries and adopted in the medical school of Montpellier and other European Universities. The book is a catalogue of the surgical instruments where are available the descriptions of more than two hundred pieces in diagrams and illustrations about their appropriate use. The techniques described in the book influenced European surgery in the Middle age and Renaissance.

The book is the printed edition Venetiis: Bonetus Locatellus: impens. Hered. Actaviani Scoti 27th January 1500. 1 volume, il. Fol. The author is Guido de Cauliaco, Chirurgia cum cauteriis (latine)/Abulcasis; a Gerardo Cremonensis translate. The illustrations are block prints.