- Amputation below the knee
This is the first picture of an amputation known From Gerssdorff’s woodcut, reproduced in Gurlt’s “Geschichte der Chirurgie” - Brunschwig’s surgical armamentarium
From Gurlt’s “Geschichte der Chirurgie” Hans von Gerssdorff and Hieronymus Brunschwig, who flourished in the latter half of the fifteenth century in Germany, have both left early printed treatises on Surgery which give excellent woodcuts showing pictures of instruments, operations, and costumes, at the end of the medieval period. - Medieval Surgical instruments
Surgical instruments of Guy de Chauliac, nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 (fourteenth century); and surgical apparatus of Hans von Gerssdorff, nos. 5, 6 and 7 (fifteenth century) After plates in Gurlt’s “Geschichte der Chirurgie” 1. Trepan 2. Balista used for extraction of arrows 3. Cauterizing shears with cannula for cauterization of the uvula 4. Bistoury 5. Extension arrangement for reducing upper arm dislocations, called “The Fool” 6. Screwpiece for extending a knee contracture 7. Extension apparatus in the form of armour-arm and armour-leg plates (“harness instruments”) for contractures of the elbow and knee joints - Surgical instruments of the Arabs
Surgical instruments of the Arabs, according to Abulcasim After plates in Gurlt’s “Geschichte der Chirurgie” 1. A pincher for extracting foreign bodies from the ear 2. An ear syringe for injections 3. A tongue depressor 4. Concave scissors for the removal of tonsils 5. Curved pinchers for foreign bodies in the throat 6 to 29. Instruments for the treatment of the teeth 19 and 20. Forceps 21 to 25. Levers and hooks for the removal of roots 26. Strong pinchers for the same 27. A tooth saw 28 and 29. Files for the teeth - Thirteenth-century hospital interior
Thirteenth-Century Hospital Interior (Tonerre) From “The Thirteenth: Greatest of Centuries,” by J. J. Walsh This was built by the sister of Louis IX of France, Marguerite of Bourgogne, who retired to it herself to spend her life caring for the ailing poor. - Psalterium
a very simple stringed instrument of a triangular shape, and a somewhat similar one of a square shape were designated by the name of psalterium - Citole
A small psalterium with strings placed over a sound-board was apparently the prototype of the citole; a kind of dulcimer which was played with the fingers. The names were not only often vaguely applied by the mediæval writers but they changed also 89in almost every century. The psalterium, or psalterion (Italian salterio, English psaltery), of the fourteenth century and later had the trapezium shape of the dulcimer. - Anglo-saxon harp
The Anglo-saxons frequently accompanied their vocal effusions with a harp, more or less triangular in shape,—an instrument which may be considered rather as constituting the transition of the lyre into the harp. The representation of king David playing the harp is from an Anglo-saxon manuscript of the beginning of the eleventh century, in the British museum. The harp was especially popular in central and northern Europe, and was the favourite instrument of the German and Celtic bards and of the Scandinavian skalds. - Harp, ninth century
In the illustration from the manuscript of the monastery of St. Blasius twelve strings and two sound holes are given to it. A harp similar in form and size, but without the front pillar, was known to the ancient Egyptians. - German rotte
One of the most interesting stringed instruments of the middle ages is the rotta (German, rotte; English, rote). It was sounded by twanging the strings, and also by the application of the bow. The first method was, of course, the elder one. There can hardly be a doubt that when the bow came into use it was applied to certain popular instruments which previously had been treated like the cithara or the psalterium. - Rotta
A representation of David playing on the rotta, from a psalter of the seventh century in the British museum (Cott. Vesp. A. I). According to tradition, this psalter is one of the manuscripts which were sent by pope Gregory to St. Augustine. In the rotta the ancient Asiatic lyre is easily to be recognized. - Irish Rotta
A very interesting representation of the Psalmist [King David] with a kind of rotta occurs in a manuscript of the tenth century, in the British museum (Vitellius F. XI.). The manuscript has been much injured by a fire in the year 1731, but Professor Westwood has succeeded, with great care, and with the aid of a magnifying glass, in making out the lines of the figure. As it has been ascertained that the psalter is written in the Irish semi-uncial character it is highly probable that the kind of rotta represents the Irish cionar cruit, which was played by twanging the strings and also by the application of a bow. - Carillon, Netherlands
The idea of forming of a number of bells a musical instrument such as the carillon is said by some to have suggested itself first to the English and Dutch; but what we have seen in Asiatic countries sufficiently refutes this. Moreover, not only the Romans employed variously arranged and attuned bells, but also among the Etruscan antiquities an instrument has been discovered which is constructed of a number of bronze vessels placed in a row on a metal rod. Numerous bells, varying in size and tone, have also been found in Etruscan tombs. Among the later contrivances of this kind in European countries the sets of bells suspended in a wooden frame, which we find in mediæval illuminations, deserve notice. In the British museum is a manuscript of the fourteenth century in which king David is depicted holding in each hand a hammer with which he strikes upon bells of different dimensions, suspended on a wooden stand.