Hans von Gersdorff

Hans von Gersdorff, also called Schyl-Hans, was a German surgeon who lived from about 1455 to 1529. He is known for the Feldbuch der Wundarzney, a field book of surgery printed in Strasbourg by Johannes Schott in 1517. The book gave practical instruction for the surgeon on campaign, including procedures such as amputation, and it carried woodcut illustrations attributed to Hans Wechtlin, which made it one of the notable illustrated surgical texts of the early sixteenth century. Its pictures of instruments and operations are still reproduced in histories of surgery and of anatomical illustration. Reference works such as the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie and the Neue Deutsche Biographie have entries on him, and a reprint of the 1517 edition appeared in 1967. The dates of his birth and death are given only approximately in the source used here, so no more exact biography is stated.