Illustration from the Commentaries by Apollonio from Chiton on a Hippocratic Treaty

Treatment for a dislocated spine: the patient is suspended with straps to a ladder. Folio 200 of Florence, Laurentian Pluteus 74.7, depicting an orthopedic procedure involving a ladder and pulley. The earliest surviving illustrated surgical codex was written and illuminated in Constantinople for the Byzantine physician Niketas (Nicetas) about 900 CE. It contains 30 full-page images illustrating the commentary of Apollonios of Kition on the Hippocratic treatise On Dislocations (Peri Arthron) and 63 smaller images scattered through the pages of the treatise on bandaging of Soranos of Ephesos. The Apollonian paintings represent various manipulations and apparatus employed in reducing dislocations; each of the images is framed in the Byzantine style in an archway of ornate design. Artwork-location: Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (Laurenziana Library)