Ralf Vollmuth, Traumatologie und Feldchirurgie an der Wende vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit: examplarisch dargestellt anhand der “Grossen Chirurgie” des Walther Herrmann Ryff, Sudhoffs Archiv, Beiheft 45, Stuttgart, Franz Steiner, 2001, pp. 352, illus., ₠44.00 (hardback 3-515-07742-1).

Abstract

The goal of this study is to present the state of the art in the field of what the author calls “traumatology” (anachronistically using the term of a modern medical discipline), i.e. the treatment of injuries, and military surgery during the transition period from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. At the same time, it aims to provide a critical evaluation of the plausibility and effectiveness of the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures current during that time period. The basis for this evaluation is a thorough examination of the Grosse Chirurgie of Walther Herrmann Ryff, published in 1545. According to the great historian of surgery Ernst Gurlt (1898), Ryff's work is a representative compilation of the then current surgical techniques. The Chirurgie, as Vollmuth claims, not only provides detailed and richly illustrated material, it was also widely read and used. The study starts off with a biographical section on Walther Hermann Ryff which provides basic information on the life and work of this early modern author. However, Vollmuth's emphasis on saving Ryff's reputation is a bit out of touch with the concerns of current historiography of pre-modern medicine. Among other things, he defends the surgeon's honour against the accusation of plagiarism by explaining that copying others' books was quite common at the time. This well-known fact, however, is one of the reasons why the issue of originality and priority has become more or less irrelevant for historians working on early modern medicine, so that Vollmuth's attempt at rehabilitating Ryff seems oddly beside the point. What is even more problematic, however, is the study's analytic strategy. As the author explicitly states (p. 323), it consists in taking Ryff's book apart and reordering it according to modern concerns. Chapter 1 is a description of the surgical instruments shown and described in the Chirurgie. Chapter 2 consists in an alphabetically ordered list of all the drugs occurring in Ryff's book (pp. 82–170). Chapter 3, which the author characterizes as the central chapter, deals with the different injuries, their treatment, and the plausibility and efficacy of the surgical treatment procedures according to modern medical knowledge. The structure of this chapter deliberately follows modern textbooks of surgery (p. 171). The first part is devoted to ‘General surgery’ and includes questions of anaesthesia and pain management, wound treatment, haemostasis and cauterization, complications and post-operative treatment. The second part discusses injuries of various body regions. This peculiar presentist structure might make it easier to find particular topics, in case one wants to compare them with other books, for example, but it also makes it harder to understand Ryff, and his book, in the context of his time. All in all Vollmuth's study combines an amazing erudition and thoroughness concerning philological and antiquarian details on the one hand, with an equally amazing naivety as to the aspects of cultural history of the topic, on the other.