Personal physician to three popes in 14th-century Avignon — Clement VI, Innocent VI, and Urban V — Guy de Chauliac compiled in the Chirurgia Magna (1363) the most influential synthesis of medieval European surgery, synthesizing the Galenic tradition with Arab authorities, chiefly Avicenna and Albucasis (Al-Zahrawi), citing the latter 175 times. It became the reference manual in European universities for over two centuries. He survived the Black Death in Avignon (1348-1350) as a direct clinical witness.