Renaissance Surgeons

This insightful exploration of surgical history focuses on Spanish Renaissance surgeons, highlighting their contributions to medical knowledge and practice during a transformative period.

This book examines the lives, careers, and publications of a group of Spanish Renaissance surgeons, who serve as exemplars of the surgical renaissance occurring across Europe, as well as the unique context of Spain. In the sixteenth century, European surgeons began to redefine their identities as learned experts, merging university medical degrees with practical skills and experiences. This transformation marked a significant departure from the traditional role of apprentice-trained craftsmen who primarily treated external wounds and ailments.

The surgeons highlighted in Renaissance Surgeons actively participated in the epistemic shifts of their time, embracing new forms of knowledge construction rooted in empiricism and benefiting from the circulation of knowledge facilitated by the printing press. While often overshadowed by the contributions of anatomists and botanists, these learned surgeons were integral to the same intellectual currents that were reshaping various aspects of knowledge during the Renaissance. Operating in communities throughout Castile and Aragon, they formed an intellectual network that significantly influenced surgical knowledge and practice.

The book provides a comprehensive overview of the Spanish learned surgeons, known as médicos y cirujanos, who played vital roles in universities, on battlefields, at court, and in private practice. It argues that the significance of these surgeons lies in their collective identity as part of the broader intellectual shift towards empiricism and innovation during the Renaissance. Renaissance Surgeons is essential reading for upper-level students and scholars of the history of medicine and early modern Spain.