Hugh of Lucca, a bold and creative surgeon and teacher who left no written record of his life or work. He also known as Ugo Borgognoni was born in Lucca in the second half of the twelfth century and lived in Bologna after 1214, the year he signed a contract as medico condotto.
From 1218 to c. 1221, he accompanied the Bolognese army on a Crusade in Egypt and the Holy Land; he died in Bologna in 1257.
The Chirurgia of Theodoric, written by Theodoric which was completed in 1267, is built about the teachings of Hugh. The great contribution of this master was the ‘dry’ treatment of wounds. Growing out comments by Galen, which were distorted in the translation of the Arabs, had come the doctrine that suppuration was necessary to the healing of wounds.
Hugh of Lucca, founder of the bologna surgical school
