Guy de Chauliac
French surgeon (ca. 1300-1368)
Guy de Chauliac (French: [də ʃoljak]), also called Guido or Guigo de Cauliaco (c. 1300 – 25 July 1368), was a French physician and surgeon who wrote a lengthy and influential treatise on surgery in Latin, titled Chirurgia magna. It was translated into many other languages (including Middle English) and widely read by physicians in late medieval Europe.
Life
Guy de Chauliac was born in Chaulhac, Lozère, France, into a family of modest means. He began his study of medicine in Toulouse before going to study in Montpellier, the centre for medical knowledge in 14th-century France. He was in Paris between 1315 and 1320, and around 1325, he became a Master of Medicine and Surgery. After receiving his degree, he went to Bologna to study anatomy under Nicola Bertuccio, from whom he may have learned surgical techniques. It is unknown whether Chauliac applied his surgical studies and knowledge. Charles H. Talbot writes, It was seemingly from books that [Chauliac] learned his surgery.... He may have used the knife when embalming the bodies of dead popes, but he was careful to avoid it on living patients. Others, including André Thevenet, claim that Chauliac moved to Mende and then Lyons to practice medicine after learning the art of surgery from Bertuccio.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q469362. VIAF identifies the subject as 100205722. The Library of Congress control number is n83063246. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1300, 1368, 1315 and 1320.
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This entry incorporates text from “Guy de Chauliac” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.