Although it is also declared in some sources that in the early 13th century the Salernitan surgical traditions of the Medical School of Salerno had been brought to Bologna by Roland of Parma, at the time Hugh of Lucca was employed by the city as military surgeon.
[1][3][4] He is also said to have been a man of action, since he accompanied the Bolognese army on the Fifth Crusade, visiting both Syria and Egypt, and being present at the Siege of Dammietta in 1219.
He is thought to have gained rich experience with not only the wounds of the soldiers but also with the Black Death, which was ravaging the opposing armies during the lengthy conflict he witnessed.
This has been called "the earliest undisputed example in medieval Italy where a doctor was hired long term by a city to treat its population".
Hugh's wartime experience of treating injured Bolognese soldiers in the field convinced him that the most effective method of healing wounds of the skull was without the encouragement of suppuration.
"[2][4] In 1221, after his return to Bologna, he was appointed as a legal physician in the city, a position recorded for the first time and concerned with medical jurisprudence.
Although he lived into his 90s, and assumedly passed away in 1259, it is continuously stated in sources that he left no written record, and all his achievements were noted down by Theodoric.
Hugh of Lucca, his pupil and son Theodoric, Bishop of Cervia (1205–96), and French anatomist and surgeon Henri of Mondeville (1260–1320), who learned this method from studying Theodoric's Surgery in medical courses taught by Jean Pitard (1235–1330) and Lanfranc of Milan (1250–1306) challenged the conventional treatment of wounds sustained in battle, which involved suppuration, or the encouragement of pus formation, held to be necessary in the healing process.
Firstly, it rejected conventional medical wisdom based on Galen and other ancient writers who believed that the healing was not possible without the removal of "bad humours".
Secondly, the dry method of healing repudiated a religious belief system that taught that the evacuation of bad humours was a cleansing of evil from the body.