page_title: Guy de Chauliac
section_title: Chirurgia magna
hierarchical_section_title: Guy de Chauliac / Works / Chirurgia magna
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Chirurgia (italiano). - In Venesia&#160;: impresso per maistro Piero di Quarengi de Palazago et Zohan Maria de Monte ferato, nel MCCCCLXXXXIII adi XXI del mese di agosto. - 118 c.&#160;; a⁸, b-s⁶, t⁸&#160;; fol. - Manca la c. t8 .
context_page_description: Guy de Chauliac, also called Guido or Guigo de Cauliaco, was a French physician and surgeon who wrote a lengthy and influential treatise on surgery in Latin, titled Chirurgia Magna. It was translated into many other languages and widely read by physicians in late medieval Europe.
context_section_description: Chauliac's seminal work on surgery, Chirurgia magna,  was finished in 1363 in Avignon. In seven volumes, the treatise covers anatomy, bloodletting, cauterization, drugs, anesthetics, wounds, fractures, ulcers, special diseases, and antidotes. Among de Chaulic's treatments he described the use of bandages and he also believed  pus from an infection was beneficial to the healing process. He describes surgical techniques such as intubation, tracheotomy, and suturing.
  Chauliac quoted frequently from other medical works, written by contemporaries or those written by earlier physicians and anatomists, as he sought to describe the history of medicine. He claimed that surgery began with  Hippocrates and Galen, and was developed in the Arab world by Haly Abbas, Albucasis, and Al-Razi. Through his position as papal physician, Chauliac had access to Galen's texts, recently translated by Niccolò da Reggio from original Greek versions, which were more accurate than the Latin translations.
  As well as owing a debt to Galen, Chirurgia magna was greatly influenced by Islamic scientists, and de Chauliac references Avicenna often in the work. The work became popular and was translated into English, French, Dutch, Italian, and Provençal. It was translated into Irish by Cormac Mac Duinnshléibhe. It was reworked multiple times, including to remove references to Islamic scientists, to the point that the work was no longer recognizable as Chauliac's own.
  De Chauliac recognized the importance of Montpellier with respect to surgical study.
caption: Chirurgia, 1493
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