This study is an extremely valuable contribution to the history of medieval medicine in Europe. Ugo Benzi, called by his contemporaries "prince of philosophers and physicians," according to Prof. Lockwood was not preeminent in these two fields of intellectual activity. Indeed, the author does not think he was even a philosopher, and, as for being a physician, although he taught medical theory and practiced the art of healing, most of his theories and therapeutic measures would be scorned by the modern physician.
Hugo's name in the history of medicine does not stand out like that of his predecessors, Bernard of Gordon, Gilbertus Anglicus, and John of Gaddesden, or of his immediate successors, Nicolaus Leonicenus and Thomas Linacre. Ugo Benzi was an example of a successful and prominent physician of his time, who taught in several leading universities and treated as patients some of the great of his period but who