Due to the development of the last decades, we have a huge choice of pharmaceutical and surgical treatments to cure diseases. Anaesthesia and analgesia make possible to perform long surgeries, and in the same time it is possible to minimize the pain of patients. Before that injuries and diseases of the inside meant a death-warrant for long centuries. Liver surgery experienced a huge development in the last century, however its basics were laid down in the ancient times. There has been a huge development from the knowledge of ancient fortune-tellers to the state-of-the art surgical procedures and protocols of the liver, which is still the area of active research resulting further improvements involving novel technological solutions. With this work my aim is to provide a description of this improvement by studying the history of liver surgeries.  Kulcsszavak: jóslás, sebészet, fejlődés, máj, transzplantáció