The surgeon of Córdoba drew his instruments
Al-Zahrawi’s great medical work ends with surgery, and with drawings of the tools a surgeon should own.
Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi practiced in al-Andalus in the tenth century. His Kitab al-Tasrif runs to thirty parts; the last, on surgery, is the one that traveled furthest.1
The surgical part was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the twelfth century.
Drawings for the reader
The surgical part shows the instruments themselves: hooks, probes, forceps and saws, drawn so a reader could have them made. Many manuscript copies keep the drawings beside the text that explains their use.
Notes
- The surgical part was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the twelfth century. ↩