Hieronymus Brunschwig

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Hieronymus Brunschwig

1450?-1512?

German-Alsatian physician, pharmacologist, and military surgeon, also known as Brunschwygk, Braunschweig, or Bruynswijck. His Buch der cirurgia (Book of Surgery), published in 1497 and the first printed, illustrated surgical textbook, deals mainly with wounds and injuries, especially fractures, cuts, and gunshot wounds. He also wrote treatises in German and Latin on pharmaceutical distillation processes and on the plague. The 1512 edition of Liber de arte distillandi (Book on the Art of Distilling) is a classic of botanical medicine, demonstrating how to obtain essential oils and other chemicals from plants.