Medicine and surgery in the Northern Netherlands, as seen from 16th century municipal and surgeon guilds' regulations This article served as one of the general introductions to the symposium on 'Antwerp and the Netherlands during the 16th century'. It consists of a description of the medical and surgical profession as well as of medical science, as derived from municipal and surgeon guilds' regulations. During the evolution of the medical profession, an intermediate class of surgical men appears to have merged amidst the academically educated practitioners (medicinae doctores and medici licentiati) and the simple barber-surgeons. Some of these men originated from the academic level, not only displaying an interest in the common study but also in the common exercise of medicine and surgery. The others were highly skilled craftsmen on a non-academic level. Surgical specialists were given a special position by the municipalities and guild organizations. Midwives are not mentioned in the present sources; yet a process of exclusion of women from surgery can be noticed, except for gynaecological treatment and the application of cups and enemas. Quackery was not illicit, but subject to special rules. Surgical knowledge as expressed in the regulations appears to have been based on the Chirurgica magna of De Chauliac, especially on the edition revised by Johannes Tagaultius. In the regulations concerning anatomy there is no reference to the work of Vesalius; the revision of anatomy started along with the introduction of newer surgical literature, such as the works of Ambroise Pare and the Dutchman Carel Baten.