In this treatise on ophthalmic surgery Bartisch, who limited his practice to ophthalmology and hernia repair, left the first extensively illustrated account of any surgical specialty. Bartisch was a skilful operator and the first to practice the extirpation of the bulbus in cancer of the eye. The illustrations in his book form a comprehensive pictorial record of Renaissance eye-surgery; some of the woodcuts show the parts of the eye in various layers as they are viewed in dissection by means of movable anatomical flaps. This is one of the earliest uses of movable flaps to illustrate a medical book. Facsimile reprints, Folkstone, 1966, and Hannover, 1983.

A second edition of Bartisch's book, published in reduced format (quarto rather than the small folio of the first edition) was issued in Nuremberg, 1686, suggesting that the science may not advanced much in 100 years. The second edition is scarcer than the first.
English translation of the first edition by Donald L. Blanchard, reproducing all the woodcuts in color from a hand-colored copy, entitled Ophthalmodouleia. That is the service of the eyes (Ostende: Wayenborgh, 1996).