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_."