Surgery In The Middle Ages Essay

Surgery in the European society has changed dramatically throughout the years, and we can observe the biggest changes from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. From different techniques to how society viewed the crafts and how accessible it was. The Middle Ages were considered a time of widespread ignorance and lack of social progress. This period consisted mainly of retrieving the works and techniques of the earlier civilizations. Surgery goes back to prior civilizations, however after the fall of the Roman Empire, a wave of ignorance succumbed the population. Several brave and persevering men decided to retrieve what had been discovered previously and learned the techniques of the past. Not many people participated in the revival of the knowledge of the past, only when the Renaissance began, did surgery commence its advancements. On the other hand, the Renaissance was a period of great revival of learning.
As the Renaissance began, society’s view’s changed on surgery and surgeons. Not only did the population surrounding the surgeons change their state of minds, but surgeons also revised their ideas of what
As the population became more interested in knowledge, surgery adopted a new role in society and was seen as necessity in life. The idea of the crafts became more specified and according to Ambroise Pare’s “Apology and Treatise”, a surgeon had duties. A surgeon was expected to “remove”, “restore” “separate” “reunite” and “redress” in the body. These five simple yet complicated tasks reveal the daily lives that the surgeons had now adopted and describes their surgical