It's crude, like most 16th century engravings, but damn me if it doesn't grab you and pull you in.
Proposed caption
1525 engraving by Peter Treveris, from the Handywarke of surgeri. Trepanation was the practice of drilling holes in the skull, for various reasons, some justified and others not. In 1525, when this engraving was made, there were no anaesthetics, so the best the unfortunate patient could hope for was passing out drunk. Nonetheless, the survival rate was quite high.
The book's caption needs to be cropped from the image. It would be better to have the original source, which may be of higher quality and contain more examples than the two presented in this book. — BRIAN0918 • 2007-10-30 14:20Z
Well, yes, but it's also a rare and no doubt extremely valuble manuscript from 1525. Also, to be honest, most of the late 15th/early 16th century engravings aren't particularly interesting as art: Of about a couple hundred or so examples, it was only these two and Image:John Bydell - Engraving from the Goodly Primer.png that really seemed to rise above the others in interest. All three of them are odd and grotesque - I wonder what that says about me? I don't object to cutting the caption, if you like, but I'm going to pass out for a bit now. Vanished user talk14:36, 30 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Conditional Support don't think it does need the tilt corrected, although the trim is essential in my opinion - I'll change my vote to full support once it's done. Cheers. --Mad Tinman16:49, 30 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Support Good heavens. (Seriously though, I wonder what the reaction would be to having this on the main page...) -- Chris B • talk14:04, 31 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]