Guy de Chauliac (1300–1368)
The most influential surgeon of the 14th and 15th centuries and a writer who demonstrated rare learning and a fine historical sense, Guy de Chauliac exerted an influence so great that he became physician to three popes at Avignon (Clement VI, Innocent VI, and Urban V) and a leading surgeon at the school of Montpellier. His work was copied and translated well into the 17th century and was considered to be the principal didactic surgical text (Collectorium cyrurgie, AD 1363) of this period (Fig. 15).[21,22] Guy posited four conditions that must be satisfied for a practitioner to be a good surgeon: 1) the surgeon should be learned; 2) he should be expert; 3) he must be ingenious; and 4) he should be able to adapt himself (from the introduction of Ars Chirurgica). Guy advocated repair by primary suture and claimed good results. He used egg albumin to stop bleeding and provide adequate hemostasis, which always posed a difficult problem for surgeons. A major error on his part was to reintroduce the concept of laudable pus to the healing of wounds, which set back surgery approximately 600 years, until the time of Lord Lister in the latter half of the 19th century.