The beginnings of the literary renaissance of surgery in England / by Sir D'Arcy Power, K.B.E., F.R.C.S.

  • Power, D'Arcy, Sir, 1855-1941
Date:
[1928?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The beginnings of the literary renaissance of surgery in England / by Sir D'Arcy Power, K.B.E., F.R.C.S. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Text Society. Dr. J. F. Payne examined it with care, and I published an account of it in the Transactions of the Bibliographical Society (The Library, vol. ii, 1921-2, pp. 82-88). I see no reason to alter my conclusions then expressed that “ There is no doubt Vicary compiled this Treatise on Anatomy and issued it with the full knowledge that it was already out of date, because he thought it would be useful to the students of the United Company of Barbers and Surgeons which had been founded in 1540. There is little doubt that he pursued,„and perhaps originated, the plan which Hall imitated. He borrowed a manuscript and copied it with such alterations as his limited knowledge of anatomy allowed. He did not know or did not think it worth while to incorporate the work of Yesalius, or even of Geminus who was one of his colleagues, as surgeon to King Edward VI. Yicary worked from a single manuscript, and he printed it in an abridged form.” John Hall proceeded more methodically when he published part of Lanfranc’s Ghirurgia Larva, for he says it ” was translated out of French into the olde Saxony englishe, about two hundred yeres past. Which I haue nowe not only reduced to our vsuall speache, by changying or newe translating suche wordes, as nowe be inueterate and growne out of knowledge by processe of tyme, but also my labours in this behalf with other copies both in Frenche and latin; namely with maister Bacter, for his latine copie and Simon Hudie for his french copie, and other English copies ; of the which I had one of John Chamber, and another of John Yates both very ancient with other mo ; whose good helpe hath not a little farthered me in these things to the intent that it might perfectly come forth to a public profite which to do I was constreigned not only because I would not truste too muche to myne owne rude judgement; but also that by the authoritie of dyvers men of knowledge, this excellent worke (as it is worthy) may be the more effectually alowed and accepted.” Nothing is now known of Bacter or Hudie, those early bibliophiles of the Tudor period. John Chamber appears in a new light. He has long been known as the first person mentioned in the Charter of the College of Physicians (1518), and Holbein’s picture of Henry VIII and the Barber Surgeons has made us familiar with his appearance. He was born in Northumberland in 1470, was educated at Merton College, Oxford, of which he was Warden from 1525 to 1544, and died in 1549. He was buried in St. Margaret’s, Westminster. He was physician both to Henry VII and to Henry VIII, and, taking orders in the old Faith, he subscribed to the Reformed Church in 1536 as Dean of the Collegiate Chapel of St. Stephen’s, Westminster. He was one of the physicians in attendance on Queen Jane at the birth of Edward VI, and in a letter written by him to the Privy Council concerning the Queen’s critical state he signs himself 1 Priest.” He was also in attendance on Anne Boleyn at the birth of Elizabeth. It is pleasant to think of him as assisting at the birth of a great Queen, as well as that of the College of Physicians and of the Barber Surgeons. There is now evidence that he helped at the re-birth of surgical literature. John Yates was an active member of the Barber Surgeons Company; senior Warden in 1578; a little too free of speech, for in 1566 “ he was dismist for revealing of secrets belonging to the mistery ” ; and an examiner in surgery in 1570. He is the chief speaker in that pleasant dialogue by Thomas Gale, entitled the Institution of a Surgeon. Hall’s Treatise on Anatomy is wTorthy of more attention than it has received. The date of publication is 1565. This is probably about the time it was written, for, in quoting Geminus, he says : Whereof I gather that Geminus accompted but viii [bones going to make up the upper jaw] though he after (forgetting himselfe) wher he numbereth generally all the bones affirmeth xii. Geminus, therefore, was already dead, and we know that he died in 1560. The Tieatise is wiitten in English; it is an original work, not a compilation; it is a simple statement of anatomy as Hall knew it. It was up to date, for he quotes Carolus Stephanus, Vesalius, and Mundinus. It was intended for the use of the appientices and