Fool cutting

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The fool's cut or the fool's cut is a surgical method carried out in the Middle Ages, which according to the ideas of the time should lead to the elimination of madness or obsession . The patient's scalp was opened using the simplest means to remove alleged stones, which were believed to be the source of madness. Fool cutting is thus a form of trephination . Conclusions about the region to which these operations were restricted can be drawn primarily through sculpture; Works of art with this theme were mainly created in the Flanders region and what is now the southern Netherlands.

Procedure

Because of the idea of ​​the people in the 15th and 16th centuries that folly was a disease growing in the head, quacks and charlatans discovered this new field of activity of amateur surgery for themselves. Quacks roamed the countries and offered their arts mainly in public places. All of their methods and means were thus a display to the public. The fool cutting also consisted largely of such show interludes. The simplest means were used by the surgeon to open or scratch the skullcap, or mostly just the scalp on the forehead. The patients were not anesthetized. Then the quack conjured up a little stone or a few stones from the opening in his hand with a clever sleight of hand and let them fall at the patient's feet as a demonstration of his madness. Another fool tailor operation has been handed down by the shoemaker Hans Sachs (1494–1576), although it is not entirely clear whether his portrayal is fictional or whether it reflects reality. According to Sachs, his vices in the form of stones were removed from the patient's stomach.

Fool cutting in art

These publicly staged operations also found their place in art. Probably the most famous example is given to us by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch with his work “The Stone Cutting”. Here, however, the quack cuts a man's head with flowers instead of stones, which is attributed to an allusion made by Bosch. The text part of the picture indicates the patient as a fool: "Meester snyt die Keye ras - Myne name Is lubbert Das". - "Master, cut out the stone - my name is stupid badger". In addition, “keye” translated not only meant “stone”, but also “mental confusion”. A scene from a stone cutting operation has also come down to us with Jan Sanders ' “El Cirujano”. His work of art is believed to show an operation to treat epilepsy .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mezger, Werner: Idea of ​​fools and carnival custom. Studies on the survival of the Middle Ages in European festival culture, Konstanz 1991, pp. 297-300
  2. ^ Sachs, Michael: History of operative surgery, Volume 1, Heidelberg 2000, pp. 5–7
  3. ^ Sachs, Hans (1612): A funny barrel night game / with three people / the fool cut. In: Kruger, Hans: Das first Buch / Sehr Herrliche, Schöne vnd Warhaffte Gedicht Geistlich vnd Weltlich, allerley art / as serious tragedies / lovely comedies [...] Kempten: Augsburg 1612, pp. 938–946 [dated 1557, 3rd October]
  4. ↑ Mezger, Werner: Idea of ​​fools and carnival custom. Studies on the survival of the Middle Ages in European festival culture, Konstanz 1991, pp. 297-300