Contribution to the history of plastic and reconstructive surgery from Dubrovnik and split during the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.

Abstract

Medieval contracts for medical treatment are, without doubt, evidence of proper and adequate insight into the quality of operations performed centuries ago. Historical archives in Dalmatian cities have preserved a certain number of such contracts. Their contents assist in better understanding our historical heritage. This paper submits contracts, kept in Dubrovnik and Split, for the operation of inguinal hernia. A case depicting a defective palate treated by Amatus Lusitanus, who lived in Dubrovnik from 1555 to 1558, is also presented.