"The Prince of surgeons" (John Freund). "The Modern Hippocrates" (Fallopius). "His work is of infinite price" (Portal). "A masterpiece of learned and luminous writing" (Malgaigne). "It is rich, aphoristic, orderly, and precise" (Clifford Allbutt). "Chauliac laid the foundation of that primacy in surgery which the French maintained down to the nineteenth century" (Pagel).
Chauliac is a good type of a medieval papal physician. Two of his well-known expressions were:
"Sciences are made by addition and it is not possible that the same man should begin and finish them."
"We are like infants at the neck of a giant, for we can see all that the giant sees and something more."
The Popes and Science
THE HISTORY OF THE PAPAL RELATIONS TO SCIENCE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES AND DOWN TO OUR OWN TIME
BY
JAMES J. WALSH
K.C. St.G., M.D., Ph.D., LL.D. Litt.D. (Georgetown), Sc. D. (Notre Dame)
PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
AT THE CATHEDRAL COLLEGE, NEW YORK;
MEMBER OF THE GERMAN, FRENCH AND ITALIAN
SOCIETIES OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE,
THE ST. LOUIS HISTORY CLUB,
NEW ORLEANS PARISH MEDICAL SOCIETY,
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE,
NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
A.M.A., A.A.A.S., ETC.
NOTRE DAME EDITION
ILLUSTRATED
FIFTIETH THOUSAND
NEW YORK
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS
1915
Copyright, 1908
James J. Walsh
First edition, 2,000 copies.
Second edition, 45,000 copies, 1910.
Third (English) edition, 2,000 copies, 1912.
Fourth (Notre Dame) edition, 1915,
enlarged and illustrated.
To
Professor ETTORE MARCHIAFAVA
Papal Physician
The worthy living representative of the great series of Papal Physicians, the most distinguished list of names connected by any bond in the history of science.
"Great additions have of late been made to our knowledge of the past; the long conspiracy against the revelation of truth has gradually given way, and competing historians all over the civilized world have been zealous to take advantage of the change. The printing of archives has kept pace with the admission of enquirers; and the total mass of new matter, which the last half-century has accumulated, amounts to many thousands of volumes. In view of changes and of gains such as these, it has become impossible for the historical writer of the present age to trust without reserve even to the most respected secondary authorities. The honest student finds himself continually deserted, retarded, misled by the classics of historical literature, and has to hew his own way through multitudinous transactions, periodicals and official publications in order to reach the truth.
"Ultimate history cannot be obtained in this generation; but, so far as documentary evidence is at command, conventional history can be discarded, and the point can be shown that has been reached on the road from one to the other." (Preface of Cambridge Modern History.)
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