Last minute The Surgical School of Preci

Beginning from 1200 developed mainly at Preci, but also in the surrounding territory, a thriving medico-surgical activity, that produced remarkable results and propagated not only in Italy, but also in the rest of Europe.

The origins of the school are uncertain, but it is for sure that there were altogether about 30 families the keepers of the surgical art, that was handed down from father to son.

In the beginning the physicians were wandering about and operating just occasionally, but later on they became proper masters and famous surgeons, whose fame crossed the national borders.

Among the most appreciated surgeons of Preci is to remember Durante Sacchi, who operated the cataract of the Queen of England Elizabeth I and that of Orazio Cattani, physician of the Sultan Mehemed.

Apart from the art of surgery the physicians of Preci were also specialized in the construction of surgical instruments, a direct derivation of the surgical instruments according to Hippocrates and Galen.

Among the medical instruments of Preci are the ''instrument to break the stone'', a dilatator forceps, the ''good swimmer'' for applying the eye-wash, the ''aco'' to remove the cataract.

The surgeons of Preci distinguished themselves in some kinds of operations, like that of the vesicle calculosis, indeed called ''stone disease'' (litomania), and of the cataracts.

Preci and the Abbey of Sant'Eutizio - The town Preci is about 600 metres altitude on the right bank of the Campiano, a tributary of the river Nera. The origins of the town centre are said to...