Literary Meetings: The legacy of illustrated surgery

The Literary Meetings are a group of manuscripts which minuted regular meetings of the surgeons of the Royal College of Surgery (Real Colegio de Cirugía) of Barcelona during the «age of enlightment». Around 200 documents- or "minutes" (to which they had to add their respective criticisms or notes) are preserved. The earliest dates from 1765 and the last one is from 1835. The series of documents have time gaps which coincide with politically conflictive periods, which no doubt had an effect on the normal functioning of the College. In these meetings papers were presented on clinical questions and on the most flourishing basic sciences of the period, which was mainly chemistry. The documents, which have recently been completely transcribed and edited, represent an historic landmark in the exchange of experiences and continuous education of the Catalan surgeons. © 2009 AEC.