Handbook of the Greek Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art by Gisela M. A. Richter;Catalogue of Greek Sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Gisela M. A. RichterReview by: Sonia S. WohlIsis, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Dec., 1956), pp. 443-444Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/226647 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 443

The present work has been admirably pub- lished with abundant portraits, maps and other illustrations. It is a first-class addi- tion to the history of mining and metallurgy.

GEORGE SARTON

GISELA M. A. RICHTER: Handbook of the Greek Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art. viii + 322 PP., 35 fig., 130 P1. Cambridge: published for the Museum by the Harvard University Press, 1953. $12.50.

GISELA M. A. RICHTER: Catalogue of Greek Sculptures in the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art, New York, XViii + 123 PP., 12 fig., I64 plates. Cambridge: published for the Museum by the Harvard Univer- sity Press, 1954. $22.50.

Before I906 the Metropolitan Museum of Art owned only a few Greek objects, apart from the Cypriote Collection, but in that year it began an era of systematic buying which has developed a representative collec- tion, including a number of masterpieces. It consists now of a comparatively small number of monumental sculptures in stone or bronze, many of them Roman copies of Greek works, and a large number of smaller objects in stone, metal and terracotta, in- cluding a considerable amount of pottery. Its only representatives of pictorial art be- sides vase decorations are a few paintings on archaic and Hellenistic plaques and grave- stones. With a few important exceptions, the only gold and silver specimens are sup- plied by jewelry and coins, with some pieces in ivory, lead, wood, iron, plaster, glass and wax.

The gaps in the collection reflect what has been lost through the ages. Most of the larger Greek murals and panels have been de- stroyed; bronze statues which once adorned sanctuaries, gold and ivory cult statues, and vessels of gold and silver were melted down; marble statues were looted and converted to lime; wooden furniture, woven and em- broidered textiles rotted in the comparatively damp climate of Greece; iron weapons and sculptures corroded. That all was not lost was owing to another combination of forces. A number of chance survivals have been re- discovered after the earth had protected

them for centuries; the ancient custom of placing offerings in graves preserved many smaller objects; the Roman admiration for Greek sculpture gave us mechanically made copies and adaptations of Greek pieces, as well as our literary knowledge of Greek sculpture and painting. The modem sciences of archeology and museology in turn have done much to check losses.

In these two volumes Gisela Richter pre- sents two views of the holdings of the Metro- politan Museum of Art. The Handbook of the Greek Collection describes the whole assemblage, with the details of individual groups subordinated in order to give a com- prehensive survey. The Catalogue of Greek Sculptures provides the details of one section of the collection, the sculptures.

Both the Handbook and the Catalogue present interesting illustrations in the history of Greek art, among which those of the evolution of various technical processes used by the Greeks in their art will especially concern the historian of science. In pottery, the process of building by coils and wads gave way to throwing after the introduction of the wheel. Glass vases, first made by hand over a core, were rare until the inven- tion of glass blowing in the first century B.C. Stone sculptures were first contrived by cutting directly into the stone; later, in the Roman age, many were made by me- chanical transference by means of the point- ing process, still in use today. One question of particular interest to the historian of science is discussed but not settled: was the magnifying glass used in the minute filigree art executed by Greek jewelers?

The Handbook deals only with Greek objects and Roman copies of Greek objects, specifically those exhibited in the main gal- leries. Because they have been dealt with elsewhere, the Cypriote and Etruscan col- lections and the Roman portraits have here been omitted. The text is presented in a narrative, descriptive form and covers the period from prehistoric times to the third century B.C. The thirty-five line illustrations in the text have no captions, and the plates are also disappointing, the photographs small and crowded together. The Handbook, how- ever, is first and foremost a guide for the visitor to the Museum, and secondarily an introduction to Greek art in general, though it can be read as such with enjoyment.

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444 BOOK REVIEWS

The Catalogue describes the Museum's Greek sculptures and the Roman copies of Greek sculptures in stone. Roman portraits and sarcophagi, and the sculptures of the Cesnola Collection are omitted because they are described elsewhere. The 245 individ- ual items here analyzed have been arranged chronologically, ranging from the archaic period to the first century B.C. Roman copies and adaptations are placed with Greek originals, the word "Roman" being taken as a chronological term only, since most of the sculptors of the Roman period were Greeks. For each item a concise description is ac- companied by a reference to the plate illus- trating it, by references to further descrip- tions, and data as to its acquisition. The photographs, many from negatives taken es- pecially for this book, are magnificent.

Rockefeller Institute for SONIA S. WOHL Medical Research

The Surgery of Theodoric, ca. A.D. Z267. Translated from the Latin by Eldridge Campbell and James Colton. Volume I (Books I and 2). Xi + 223 pp., front. in color. New York: Appleton-Century- Crofts, Inc., I'955.

One of the most arresting features of mediaeval science and medicine is the emer- gence of scientific surgery, towards the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century. In the earlier middle ages, surgery had been the playground of crude empiricism at the hands of the barber- surgeon. It then developed into an applied science, based on the study of anatomy and on sound experience. In addition to this, the surgeon was required to have full command of the classical tradition of the whole of medicine and also of ancillary sciences such as logic. A new type of medical man was thus created -the scholar-surgeon. He was superior to the barber by his knowledge of scientific medicine and to the physician by his exercising observation and active in- terference, independent of authority and tra- dition. This scientific progress achieved by the Middle Ages has not met with the recognition it deserves in the history of science. Our knowledge of this momentous development is largely owing to the "dis-

covery" and inauguration (I892) of the Surgery of Henry de Mondeville by Julius Pagel (I85I-I9I2). Ever since, such pro- gressive ideas as primary wound healing by aseptic management (the use of wine for lavage), the avoidance of interfering, and many technical and methodical improve- ments have been realized as owing to teach- ing of the scholar-surgeon, "nutritus inter philosophos." As Julius Pagel has shown, Mondeville was an original and progressive man, and yet he can be regarded as the executor of the heritage of Theodoric. In the light of what has been said, it is of particular interest that Theodoric practised surgery while holding high office in the Church. When he died as bishop of Cervia, he left to charity a large fortune, the fruit of an extensive and lucrative surgical practice. The literary remains of a man of such stature promise a most illuminating insight into the history of scientific medicine. He himself was the pupil (possibly the son) of Hugo of Lucca. Our knowledge of the latter comes exclusively from Theodoric's work. Its translation into a modem language, there- fore, is of high interest, the greater, in view of the unjust and mean vilification to which Theodoric as well as Mondeville was sub- jected by Guy de Chauliac. Historical irony made the work of the latter (1363) acquire fame and authority. Through its general surgical retrogressive teaching, the sound principles of Theodoric and Mondeville were forgotten, and, until quite modem times, interference with wounds and the produc- tion of "good and laudable" pus was again practised. It is hardly known today that as late as I740 a compendium of surgery was published, which in the form of questions and answers incorporated the whole of Chauliac's Surgery for the benefit of the candidates qualifying at the college of St. Cosme. (Verduc, L., Le Maistre en Chirurgie. Par Demandes et par Reponses, en la maniMre qu'on interroge les Aspirans a Saint-Cosme, Paris, I740).

The present translation effectively renders the work of Theodoric. It is eminently read- able and appears to be faithful. Here and there one might disagree (for example, "aculeus livoris" is rendered by "evidence of envy," p. 3; "emborisma" by "haematoma," p. II; "aegritudo" by "infection," p. 20). A short glossary appended at the end has its

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