[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 Rolandina. However, it is the best representative of
the "Chirurgia" of Roger at present available. See De Renzi, op. cit.,
p. 425.]

From a careful review of the data thus presented we may epitomize,
somewhat conjecturally, the life of Gilbert substantially as follows:
He was probably born about 1180 and received his early education in
England. On the completion of this education, about the close of the
12th century, he proceeded to the Continent to complete his studies,