William of Salacet (1210-1277)

An important contemporary of Theodoric was William of Salacet (1210-1277), who taught surgery at Bologna and later at Verona.

Guglielmo da Saliceto (William of Salacet) was born in Salacet, a village near Piacenza around 1210, went to Bologna around 1230 and there probably followed the lectures of Ugo Borgognoni and Bono del Garbo.

Although he was also 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.

He practices in several north Italian cities (e.g. Piacenza, Milan, Cremona, Pavia, Verona). Because of his reputation, his patients were mostly from the upper class, although he also treated inmates in prisons, hospitals and convents. At the end of his carrier, in 1275, he published his major work Cynurgia, which was the first systematic treatise on surgery to emerge after the Middle Ages.

One of its five volumes as devoted to surgical anatomy. William advocated the use of the knife rather than the cautery and initiated the practice of quoting patients he had treated personally rather than quoting from the classical authors.

He also wrote Summa curationis et conservations (or Gulielmina), which dealing with what currently call internal medicine. William of Salacet (1210-1277)

Hugh of Lucca, founder of the bologna surgical school

Little known directly of Hugh of Lucca (1160-1257), founder of the Bologna school, but his contribution have come down in the writings of his most distinguished disciple the Dominican friar Theodoric (1205-1296).

Hugh of Lucca, a bold and creative surgeon and teacher who left no written record of his life or work. He also known as Ugo Borgognoni was born in Lucca in the second half of the twelfth century and lived in Bologna after 1214, the year he signed a contract as medico condotto.

From 1218 to c. 1221, he accompanied the Bolognese army on a Crusade in Egypt and the Holy Land; he died in Bologna in 1257.

The Chirurgia of Theodoric, written by Theodoric which was completed in 1267, is built about the teachings of Hugh. The great contribution of this master was the ‘dry’ treatment of wounds. Growing out comments by Galen, which were distorted in the translation of the Arabs, had come the doctrine that suppuration was necessary to the healing of wounds.
Hugh of Lucca, founder of the bologna surgical school