Even the brightest lights grow dim if they are not attended, and the great old torch-bearers and their works needs refreshment. After Nicaise all the Europeans, except the English speaking people, had new editions and translations of Guy's Major Surgery. With this translation of Nicaise's edition, all of the eight seminal treatises by the surgeons who brought surgery anew into Europe now are available to the English-Reader. The long discursive Introductions and footnotes by Nicaise and Joubert, and footnotes and explanatory insertions by this translator supplement Guy's text with a fine history of French surgery. Indeed, as Nicaise wrote in the historical Introduction to his edition of Pierre Franco, if we were to combine the introductions in his editions of Henri de Mondeville, Pierre Franco, and Guy de Chauliac with Malgaigne's Introduction to his edition of Ambroise Pare, we will have a complete history of European Surgery before the modern era. Guy's era was that of the Great Plague, and his book was written after its first invasion. His respectful attitude toward his colleagues and his suave gentility secured him as an officer of the Church, and as a Surgeon for The Popes at Avignon.

William of Saliceto in his time was the premier surgeon of Bologna, who wrote a textbook of medicine before he published his Surgery in 1275. Although he was trained as a cleric, he is not known to have been active as a priest. His skill, wisdom and conservative practices are clearly exposed in his treatises, and made him famous as a teacher. His prime pupil was Lanfranchi of Milan, who carried William's methods into France.

Yperman wrote the first surgical treatise in the common language of his home in Flanders. It was the first by a northern European beyond France. His teacher was Lanfranchi and his contemporary was Henri de Mondeville, both of whom had carried into France the doctrines of the great Italian surgeons, they who had attended the rebirth of surgery in Europe in the High Medieval Era.

Even the brightest lights grow dim if they are not attended, and the great old torch-bearers and their works needs refreshment. After Nicaise all the Europeans, except the English speaking people, had new editions and translations of Guy's Major Surgery. With this translation of Nicaise's edition, all of the eight seminal treatises by the surgeons who brought surgery anew into Europe now are available to the English-Reader. The long discursive Introductions and footnotes by Nicaise and Joubert, and footnotes and explanatory insertions by this translator supplement Guy's text with a fine history of French surgery. Indeed, as Nicaise wrote in the historical Introduction to his edition of Pierre Franco, if we were to combine the introductions in his editions of Henri de Mondeville, Pierre Franco, and Guy de Chauliac with Malgaigne's Introduction to his edition of Ambroise Pare, we will have a complete history of European Surgery before the modern era. Guy's era was that of the Great Plague, and his book was written after its first invasion. His respectful attitude toward his colleagues and his suave gentility secured him as an officer of the Church, and as a Surgeon for The Popes at Avignon.

William of Saliceto in his time was the premier surgeon of Bologna, who wrote a textbook of medicine before he published his Surgery in 1275. Although he was trained as a cleric, he is not known to have been active as a priest. His skill, wisdom and conservative practices are clearly exposed in his treatises, and made him famous as a teacher. His prime pupil was Lanfranchi of Milan, who carried William's methods into France.

Yperman wrote the first surgical treatise in the common language of his home in Flanders. It was the first by a northern European beyond France. His teacher was Lanfranchi and his contemporary was Henri de Mondeville, both of whom had carried into France the doctrines of the great Italian surgeons, they who had attended the rebirth of surgery in Europe in the High Medieval Era.