Department of Surgery, Vivantes Hospital Spandau, Neue Bergstraße 6, 13585 Berlin, Germany.
Langenbecks Arch Surg. 2013 Apr;398(4):609-16. doi: 10.1007/s00423-013-1050-0. Epub 2013 Jan 24.
The Roman nobleman Cornelius Celsus (25 BC-AD 50) wrote a general encyclopedia (De Artibus) dealing with several subjects, among which some had medical content (De Medicina), an eight-volume compendium, including two books about surgery (VII + VIII). It is the most significant medical document following the Hippocratic writings. In 1443, Pope Nicolas V rediscovered the work of Cornelius Celsus, despite it having been forgotten for several centuries, and it was the first medical and surgical book to be printed (AD 1478). Up until the nineteenth century, 60 editions were published in Latin as well as numerous translations in European languages, the last of which was a French translation in 1876. While Celsus' work is the best account of Roman medicine as practiced in the first century of the Christian era and its influence persisted until the nineteenth century, there is controversy as to whether Cornelius Celsus himself actually practiced as a surgeon or was only an encyclopedist who collected in the Latin language the medical knowledge available at that time.
The detailed analysis of the surgical techniques described by Celsus, the modifications tailored to the findings, possible complications, detailed description of pre- and postsurgical activities, give the general impression that he himself practiced surgery at least within his family and among his dependents. In addition, his descriptions give a clear insight into the astonishingly high standard of surgical knowledge available at the time of Celsus.
His work thus reflects the state of knowledge of his time, which is why he also assumed the role of teacher and scientist. As such, his meets the modern criteria addressed to a surgeon-scientist, who apart from the practical surgical activity, also had a role as teacher of surgery and scientist. Whether Cornelius Celsus had inaugurated a new surgical technique and was the first to describe that, and as such can be described as a master of surgery, cannot be corroborated.
Cornelius Celsus deserves a firm place in the history of surgery because with his publication De Medicina, Book VII + VIII, he has preserved Roman surgical knowledge in the first century of the Christian era and, thanks to the use of Latin in medicine and surgery, this continues to be retained up till the present day.
罗马贵族科尔内利乌斯·塞尔苏斯（公元前 25 年-公元 50 年）撰写了一部综合性百科全书（《论艺术》），涵盖了多个主题，其中一些主题涉及医学内容（《论医学》），是一部八卷本的纲要，其中包括两卷关于外科学的著作（第七卷和第八卷）。它是继希波克拉底著作之后最重要的医学文献。1443 年，教皇尼古拉五世重新发现了科尔内利乌斯·塞尔苏斯的著作，尽管它已经被遗忘了几个世纪，但它是第一部被印刷的医学和外科学著作（公元 1478 年）。直到 19 世纪，该书以拉丁语出版了 60 个版本，并被翻译成了欧洲的多种语言，最后一个版本是 1876 年的法语翻译版。虽然塞尔苏斯的著作是关于公元 1 世纪罗马医学实践的最佳记载，其影响一直持续到 19 世纪，但对于科尔内利乌斯·塞尔苏斯本人是否实际从事外科医生职业，或者他是否只是一个用拉丁语收集当时可用医学知识的百科全书编纂者，存在争议。
对塞尔苏斯所描述的外科技术进行详细分析，根据发现进行修改，可能出现的并发症，以及术前和术后活动的详细描述，总体上表明他本人至少在自己的家庭和亲属中从事外科手术。此外，他的描述清楚地反映了塞尔苏斯时期令人惊讶的高水准的外科知识。
因此，他的著作反映了他那个时代的知识状态，这就是为什么他也承担了教师和科学家的角色。因此，他符合现代对外科医生-科学家的标准，除了实际的外科手术活动外，他还担任外科手术教学和科学研究的角色。不能证实科尔内利乌斯·塞尔苏斯是否开创了一种新的外科技术并率先描述了这一点，因此能否称他为外科大师。
科尔内利乌斯·塞尔苏斯当之无愧地在外科手术史上占有一席之地，因为他的《论医学》第七卷和第八卷保存了公元 1 世纪罗马的外科知识，并且由于拉丁语在医学和外科学中的使用，这种知识一直保留到今天。
