detail from "The Treatment of a Gangrenous Leg." Photograph © Private collection/Bridgeman Art Library. Reproduced with permission.

This 16th-century German woodcut by an anonymous artist depicts the treatment of a gangrenous leg. Woodcuts began to be used to illustrate European books in the 16th century (CID 2003, vol. 37, no. 6). The early medical text, "Opera observationum et curationum medico-chirurgicarum quae extant omnia," by Wilhelm Fabri von Hilden (Fabricius Hildanus, 1560 – 1634), described as the father of German surgery, had woodcuts showing surgical procedures and instruments. Fabri is said to have first recommended amputation of the diseased limb above the gangrenous site. Scenes from woodcuts were translated into oil paintings, as suggested by comparson of this image with "The Barber- Surgeon" (D. Ryckaert, 1638; CID 2003, vol. 37, no. 7). The work is in a private collection. (Ann Arvin, Cover Art Editor)