A Medieval Surgery, Illustrated: The First Recorded Surgical Separation of Conjoined Twins

Authors

  • Krista Zamora
  • Caroline Da Rocha Birnfeld
  • Andrew Barrios

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21900/j.sourcelab.v3.1001

Abstract

Vol 3. No. 3 (2022)

This issue of SourceLab introduces readers to an example of a Byzantine surgery undertaken in the tenth century, preserved in the Madrid Skylitzes, a twelfth-century illustrated manuscript. 

This publication is part of the digital documentary edition series SourceLab, based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Our Editorial Board conducts rigorous peer-review of every edition.

References

Bliquez, Lawrence. “Two Lists of Greek Surgical Instruments and the State of Surgery in Byzantine Times.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 38 (1984): 187-204.

Buringh, Eltjo. Medieval Manuscript Production in the Latin West: Explorations with a Global Database. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2011.

Continuatus, Theophanes. Chronographia, VI.49. Corpus scriptorum historiae byzantinae 45: 433.

Diaconus, Leo. Historia, X.3. Corpus scriptorum historiae byzantinae 11: 164.

Dorairajan, Gowri. “Undiagnosed Xiphopagus Twins: A Perinatal Malady.” Clinics and Practice 2, no. 23 (2012): 52-54.

Geroulanos et al. “Thoracopagus Symmetricus. On the Separation of Siamese Twins in the 10th century A. D. by Byzantine Physicians.” Gesnerus 50 (1993): 179-200.

Eyler, Joshua R., "Introduction." Eyler, Joshua R. Disability in the Middle Ages: Reconsiderations and Reverberations. Farnham, UK: Taylor & Francis Group, 2010, pg. 1-8.

Lascaratos, John. “Fatal Wounding of the Byzantine Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363 A.D.): Approach to the Contribution of Ancient Surgery.” World Journal of Surgery 24 (2000): 615-619.

Jones, Peter Murray. “John of Arderne and the Mediterranean Tradition of Scholastic Surgery.” Garcia-Ballester, Luis, Roger French, Jon Arrizabalaga, and Andrew Cunningham, eds. Practical Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pg. 289-321.

Kaldellis, Anthony. A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from History's Most Orthodox Empire. New York and Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Kompanje, Erwin J.O. "The First Successful Separation of Conjoined Twins in 1689: Some Additions and Corrections." Twin Research and Human Genetics 7, no. 6 (2012): 537-541.

Metzler, Irina. “Disabled Children: Birth Defects, Causality, and Guilt.” Yoshikawa, Naoë Kukita, ed. Medicine, Religion and Gender in Medieval Culture. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2015, pg. 161-80.

Metzler, Irina. Fools and Idiots?: Intellectual Disability in the Middle Ages. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2016.

Panayotova, Stella and Teresa Webber. “Making an Illuminated Manuscript.” Binski, Paul and Panayotova, Stella, eds. The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West. London: Harvey Miller, 2005, pg. 23-38.

Pentogalos, G.E. and Lascaratos, John G. “A Surgical Operation Performed on Siamese Twins During the Tenth Century in Byzantium.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 58, no.1 (1984): 99-102.

Siraisi, Nancy. Medieval & Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Skylitzes, Ioannes, Synopsis of Histories, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS Vitr. 26-2, f. 131r.

Treadgold, Warren. The Middle Byzantine Historians. London: Palgrave Maxmillan, 2013.

Published

2022-08-04

Issue

Section

Articles