The lesser writings of John Arderne / by D'Arcy Power.

  • D'Arcy Power
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The lesser writings of John Arderne / by D'Arcy Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/28
    BIOGRAPHY» ‘This paper was read at the Seventeenth International Congress of Medicine, London, August 1913. (Thursday Afternoon, August 7| : | bh Ce, Athen Cort <——~> SECTION XXII | HISTORY OF MEDICINE INDEPENDENT: PAPER ae THE LESSER WRITINGS OF JOHN ARDERNE By D’ARCY| POWER, F.R:C.S., ENGLAND Introduction. Saxon Leechdom and the treatment of disease by herbs and charms, which was its characteristic feature, lingered in England long after the Conquest. Little by little it was replaced by the newer teaching of Salerno and Montpellier, introduced by the learned men who frequented the court of Henry I, and from the courts it gradually filtered downwards _ to the practitioners who treated the mass of the people. We know very little at present about surgery in Saxon times, and John Arderne is the earliest English surgeon about whom we have any detailed knowledge. He lived through the fourteenth century, and was essentially a general - surgeon who practised amongst all classes, first in the wars, then at Newark, last of all and as an old man in London. He was held in high esteem by his contemporaries, who admitted him to the guild of surgeons in London, and his teaching was appreciated by his successors, as is proved by the numerous manuscripts of his writings which exist both in the original Latin and in English translations. I edited one transla- tion, made early in the fifteenth century for the Early English Text Society, in 1910, and the knowledge I then gained of Arderne’s life and character led me to think it would be worth while studying the rest of his treatises as a guide to the quality and nature of the knowledge possessed by an English surgeon in the fourteenth century. Account of Arderne. A few details of Arderne’s life and times will render his position more easy to understand. He was born in 1307, and was certainly writing as late as 1376, and perhaps for some years after- wards. During this period much happened at home and abroad, for Arderne lived through the reign of Edward III, that “noble King Edward for whom no honour is too great’, as Jean le Belsays. He was in some way attached to John of Gaunt, and he knew personally many of the great men of the Hundred Years’ War with France, men whose names and deeds are now household words, for they were celebrated by Jean le Bel and by Froissart. At a time when chivalry reached its highest development Arderne lived with the most chivalrous, and he had treated,
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3