Renaissance Rhinoplasty

Early Rhinoplasty was performed for two reasons. Syphilis was common in the Renaissance and advanced syphilis ate away the flesh and cartilage of the nose. There was also the fact that duels were common and the nose was an easy target~! I was surprised to learn that experiments in plastic surgery were performed at such an early date. Not many were successful, a notable exception was the Vianeo bros. method of rhinoplasty.  The surgery was complicated and the recovery time long...

Calabrian Method of Rhinoplasty, 1597

The above illustration and following text are taken from the book, "The Professor of Secrets", by William Eamon.


"First they gave the patient a purgative. Then they took pincers and grabbed the skin in the left arm between the shoulder and the elbow and passed a large knife between the pincers and the muscle, cutting a slit in the skin. They passed a small piece of wool or linen under the skin and medicated it until the skin thickened. When it was just right, they cut the nose to fit the end of the little skin flap. Then they snipped the skin on the arm at one end and sewed it to the nose. They bound it there so artfully that it could not be moved in any way until the skin had grown onto the nose. When the skin flap was joined to the nose, they cut the other end from the arm. They skinned the lip of the mouth and sewed the flap of skin from the arm onto it, and medicated it until it was joined to the lip. Then they put a metal form on it, and fastened it there until the nose grew into it to the right proportions. It remained well formed but somewhat whiter than the face. It's a fine operation and an excellent experience."


Eamon is quoting from the writings of Leonardo Fioravanti in the above referenced material. The emphasis on "excellent experience is mine... sarcasm ON.  I... think... NOT.


from Eamon:


"One can only imagine what excruciating agony the operation must have caused. Added to the pain of surgery was the discomfort the patient had to suffer during the prolonged healing process. The entire operation could take as long as 45 days, including 15 days in which the arm was bound to the head in a harness as the skin graft took hold. The risk of infection to the open wound also must have been high...


...Those who endured the operation seem to have deemed the discomfort and inconvenience well worth it. The humanist Camillo Porzio, who underwent the procedure in 1561 to restore a nose that had been cut off in a fight with a jealous husband, admitted that he had "suffered the greatest trials" during the operation, yet he was pleased with the results, deeming his new nose "so similar to the first one that it will be difficult for those who do not know to realize that it is not the same.""