Gilbertus Anglicus | Page 7

Henry Ebenezer Handerson
consciousness of the biographer.
On the other hand, Mr. Kingsford bases his theory of Gilbert's sojourn in Syria upon a story adopted, I think, from Littré and found in the Histoire litéraire de la France. The Compendium of Gilbert contains (f. 137a) a chapter giving the composition of a complex collyrium with which he professes to have cured the almost total blindness of Bertram, son of Hugo de Jubilet, after the disease had baffled the skill of the Saracen and Christian-Syrian physicians of his day. Now Littré avers that a certain Hugo de Jubilet was involved in an ambuscade in Syria in the year 1227, and that he had a son named Bertram. It is very natural, of course, to conclude that this Bertram was the patient recorded in the book of Gilbert. Kingsford says that Gilbert "met" Bertram in Syria, but the text of the Compendium says nothing of the locality of their meeting, which might have taken place almost anywhere in Europe, perhaps even at Salernum, a favorite resort of the invalided Crusaders in these times. Finally, Dr. Payne disposes effectually of the authenticity of the entire story by calling attention to the fact that the chapter referred to in the Compendium is marked plainly "Additio," without indicating whether this addition is from the pen of Gilbert or some later glossator.
Finally, I may suggest another line of argument, which, so far as I know, has not yet been advanced for the determination of the period of Gilbert.
The Compendium Medicinae of Gilbert is, of course, a compendium of internal medicine. But the book is also something more. Not less than fifty chapters are devoted to a comparatively full discussion of wounds, fractures and dislocations, lithotomy, herniotomy, fistulae and the various diseases on the border line between medicine and surgery. Not a single surgical writer, however, is quoted by name. Nevertheless the major part of these surgical chapters are either literal copies, or very close paraphrases, of the similar chapters of the "_Chirurgia_" of Roger of Parma, a distinguished professor in Salernum and the pioneer of modern surgery. The precise period of Roger is not definitely settled by the unanimous agreement of modern historians, but in the "_Epilogus_" of the "_Glosulae Quatuor Magistrorum_" it is said that Roger's "_Chirurgia_" was "_in lucem et ordinem redactum_" by Guido Arietinus, in the year of our Lord 1230. This date, while perhaps not unquestionable, is also adopted by De Renzi, the Italian historian of Medicine. The original MS. of Roger's work is said to be still in existence in the Magliabechian Library in Florence, but it has never been published in its original form.[5] Roland of Parma, however, a pupil of Roger, published in 1264 what purports to be a copy of Roger's "_Chirurgia_" with some notes and additions of his own, and it is from this MS. of Roland that all our copies of Roger's work have been printed. Roger's "_Chirurgia_" was popularly known as the "_Rogerina_;" the edition of Roland as the "Rolandina." They are frequently confounded, but are not identical, though the additions of Roland are usually regarded as of little importance. In the absence of Roger's manuscript, however, they lead often to considerable confusion, as it is not always easy to determine in the printed copies of the "_Rolandina_" just what belongs to Roger and what to his pupil and editor. Now a careful comparison of the surgical chapters of Gilbert of England with the published text of the "_Rolandina_" leads me to the conviction that Gilbert had before him the text of Roger, rather than that of Roland, his pupil. If such is the fact, Gilbert's Compendium must have been written between 1230 and 1264, the dates respectively of the "_Rogerina_" and "Rolandina."
[Footnote 5: Haeser says that this MS. of Roger's "Chirurgia," made by Guido Arenitensium, was discovered by Puccinoti in the Magliabechian library, and that an old Italian translation of the same work is also found there. The latter was the work of a certain Bartollomeo.
The text used to represent Roger in the present paper is that published by De Renzi (Collectio Salernitana, tom. II, pp. 426-493) and entitled "Rogerii, Medici Celeberrimi Chirurgia." It is really the text published originally in the "Collectio Chirurgica Veneta" of 1546, of which the preface says:
"_His acceserunt Rogerii ac Guil. Saliceti chirurgiae, quarum prior quibusdam decorata adnotationibus nunc primum in lucem exit, etc._," and adds further on:
"_Addidimus etiam quasdam in Rogerium veluti explanationes, in antiquissimo codice inventas, et ab ipso fortasse Rolando factas._" While I may recognize gratefully the surgical enthusiasm which led the editor to the publication of these "veluti explanationes," for my present purpose he would have earned more grateful recognition if he had left them unprinted. As the text now stands it is merely a garbled edition of the
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