Locating the Hand and Sense of Touch in Sixteenth-Century Surgical Writings of Ambrose Paré and Hans von Gersdorff

Year 2023, Volume: 13 Issue: 3, 592 - 599, 28.09.2023

Jameson Kısmet Bell

https://doi.org/10.31020/mutftd.1285933

Abstract

Objective: This article offers two case studies of sixteenth-century surgical approaches to the hand and definitions of the sense of touch in works by Frenchman Ambrose Paré and German Hans von Gersdorff.
Method: Through comparative analysis, this article studies references to and treatments of hand ailments in the sixteenth-century surgical manuals printed by Ambrose Paré and Hans von Gersdorff. Research was conducted between 2012-2014, updated in 2023, and focuses specifically on digital versions of Ambrose Paré’s vernacular French “Ten Books of Surgery” collected in his Opera Omnia (1575) held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and Hans von Gersdorff’s Feldtbuch der Wundartzney (1517) held at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Results: The human hand in the sixteenth century was both a natural and symbolic object whereby the hand offered individuals the immediacy of the sense of touch, established the boundary between those that exercised their hands (manual practitioners), and those who abstained from manual labor in favor of intellectual pursuits (theoreticians). Through discussions of limb amputation, Ambrose Paré located the sense of touch in the soul and not an amputated limb. In contrast, Hans von Gersdorff located the sense of touch in the hand itself, which retained a special power after amputation.
Conclusion: The increased reliance on dissection and anatomy, visual arts, personal experience, and publishing in sixteenth-century Europe offers historians a series of divergent surgical rituals and interpretations of the body, specifically the hand and sense of touch. Contemporary theories of embodied cognition mirror the problem of the location of the sense of touch in the mind or in the organ itself found in Paré and Gersorff’s writings.

Keywords

History, Surgical Amputation, Sensation, Phantom Limbs, Sixteenth Century

On Altıncı Yüzyıl Cerrahi Yazılarında El ve Dokunma Duyusunun Yeri: Ambrose Paré ve Hans von Gersdorff Örnekleri

Abstract

Amaç: Bu makalede, Fransız Ambrose Paré ve Alman Hans von Gersdorff'un eserlerindeki on altıncı yüzyıl cerrahi yaklaşımlarına ve dokunma duyusunun tanımlarına ilişkin iki örnek sunulmaktadır.
Yöntem: Bu makalede, karşılaştırmalı analiz yoluyla Ambrose Paré ve Hans von Gersdorff tarafından basılan on altıncı yüzyıl cerrahi el kitaplarında el hastalıklarına ve bunların tedavilerine yapılan atıflar incelenmiştir. Araştırma 2012-2014 yılları arasında yapılmıştır ve 2023'te güncellenmiştir. Araştırmada, Ambrose Paré’nin Fransa’daki Bibliothèque nationale de France’ta bulunan Opera Omnia (1575) adlı eserinde derlenen, yalın bir Fransızcayla kaleme aldığı “Cerrahinin On Kitabı” eseri ile Hans von Gersdorff’un Almanya’daki Heidelberg Üniversitesi’nde bulunan Feldtbuch der Wundartzney (1517) adlı eserinin dijital sürümleri üzerine odaklanılmıştır.
Bulgular: On altıncı yüzyılda hem doğal hem de sembolik bir nesne olan insan eli, bireylere dokunma duyusunun yakınlık ve dolaysızlığını sunarken, aynı zamanda ellerini işleri için kullananlar (örneğin cerrahlar) ile ellerini kullanmak yerine entelektüel faaliyetleri tercih edenler (teorisyenler) arasındaki ayrımı ortaya koyar. Uzuv kesimi tartışmalarında Ambrose Paré, dokunma duyusunu kesilmiş uzuvda değil, ruhta konumlandırır. Bunun aksine Hans von Gersdorff, elin ampüte edildikten sonra bile özel bir güç taşımaya devam ettiğini belirterek dokunma duyusunu elin kendisinde konumlandırır.
Sonuç: On altıncı yüzyıl Avrupa'sında diseksiyon ve anatomiden, görsel sanatlardan, kişisel deneyimlerden ve yayıncılıktan giderek daha fazla yararlanılması, tarihçilere özellikle el ve dokunma hissine ilişkin çeşitli cerrahi ritüeller ve beden hakkında yorumlamalar sunar. Paré ve Gersorff'un yazıları, dokunma duyusunun yerinin zihinde mi yoksa organın kendisinde mi olduğu sorgulamasında, bedenlenmiş biliş üzerine yapılmış çağdaş teoriler ile benzerlik göstermektedir.

Keywords

Tarih, Cerrahi Amputasyon, Dokunma Duyusu, Hayalet Uzuvlar, On Altıncı Yüzyıl

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