| Das Büch der Waren Kunst zu Distillieren die Composita | |
| 1507 |  |
| Hieronymus Brunschwig(c. 1450-1512) | |
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Brunschwig was a surgeon born in Strasbourg (German territory at that time). The majority of the surgeons at that time also worked as barbers, and their medical knowledge and skills were poor. Brunschwig insisted that he was taught medical science in Italy and France; however, this is doubtful. He is most likely to have studied medicine by himself. However, he succeeded as a surgeon because he was excellent at medicine and enjoyed research. Thus, he had sufficient time and money to travel throughout Europe and broaden his knowledge. Because he was blessed with writing skills, he wrote two books (1481–1497) for barbers, surgeons, and the general public on the treatment methods for wounds, bone fractures, dislocations, craniotomy, and surgical cutting and on the preparation of necessary medicines. Because of its practicality and abundant illustrations, this book helped to advance the level of German medicine, which was lower when compared with that in Italy and France at that time. According to the book, Brunschwig was fundamentally faithful to the medical tradition developed in accordance with the theory of Galenus (approximately 130–200 A.D.) (Galenus was a medical doctor in Greece whose medical theory had absolute authority until the 16th century); however, he criticized at least some knowledge obtained during those days that contradicted his knowledge based on personal experience. He further wrote a small booklet on methods for producing medicine (published in 1500). After this booklet became renowned, it was republished as this book in 1507 with several significant revisions. This book lists effective medicines for the treatment of various diseases and injuries, while providing details for extracting these medicines from appropriate herbs. Specifically, distillation was considered to be the extraction method. Brunschwig included several beautiful illustrations to explain various forms of distillation equipment, such as flasks and furnaces, handling methods, and distillation methods, in a straightforward manner. Therefore, the book was perceived to be the most authoritative handbook on medicine production until the 16th century. Furthermore, a list of medicines that could be obtained by poor people was included at the end of the book. This list was independently published several times, thereby becoming a model of non-prescription medicine for the general public. Furthermore, this book linked medieval magical chemistry such as alchemy and modern scientific chemistry by systematically combining the medicine production method and the distillation method. |
