Roger Frugardi, Chirurgia

Description

The longest text in this illustrated medical compendium is a French translation of the Chirurgia (Surgery), a practical manual written by the Lombard surgeon Roger Frugardi (d. before 1195), also known as Roger Frugard of Parma, in the late 12th century.

This copy of the text was written in Amiens in the first quarter of the 14th century. It is remarkable for its series of surgical illustrations, which uniquely juxtapose surgical procedures with scenes from the life of Christ. One page of the manuscript, for example, pairs representations of the Annunciation, the Visitation between the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, and the Nativity with six images of a doctor undertaking a surgery on a patient’s skull (f. 2r).