A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 1 (of 2) by Lynn Thorndike

CHAPTER XXXI

282 words | Chapter 69

ANGLO-SAXON, SALERNITAN, AND OTHER LATIN MEDICINE IN MANUSCRIPTS FROM THE NINTH TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY Plan of this chapter—Instances of early medieval additions to ancient medicine—_Leech-Book of Bald and Cild_—Magical procedure and incantations—A superstitious compound—Summary—Cauterization—Treatment of demoniacs—Incantations and characters—In a twelfth century manuscript—Magic with a split hazel rod—More incantations and the virtues of a vulture—_Lots of the saints_—Superstitious veterinary and medical practice—Two Paris manuscripts—Blood-letting—Resemblances to Egerton 821—Virtues of blood—Pious incantations and magical procedure—More superstitious veterinary practice—The School of Salerno—Was Salernitan medicine free from superstition?—The _Practica_ of Petrocellus—Its sources—Fourfold origin of medicine—Therapeutics of Petrocellus—The _Regimen Salernitanum_—Its superstition—The _Practica_ of Archimatthaeus—A Salernitan treatise of about 1200—The wives of Salerno. [Sidenote: Plan of this chapter.] In this chapter our purpose is to treat of early medieval medicine as distinct on the one hand from post-classical medicine, to which we have already devoted a chapter, and on the other hand from later medieval medicine as affected by translations from the Arabic and other oriental influence. Perhaps one of the outcomes of our discussion will be to suggest that any such distinctions cannot be at all sharply or chronologically drawn. However, the writings which we shall discuss now are contained mainly in manuscripts dating from the ninth to the twelfth century, although some of them may have been first composed at an earlier date than that of the manuscript in which they chance to be preserved. Some are in Anglo-Saxon; more, in Latin. Some it has been customary to classify under the caption of Salernitan. We shall postpone until the next chapter our consideration of Constantinus Africanus, although the dates of his life fall within the eleventh century, because he already at that early date represents the

Chapters

1. Chapter 1 2. BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE 3. 2. PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY 41 4. 4. GALEN 117 5. 5. ANCIENT APPLIED SCIENCE AND MAGIC: VITRUVIUS, 6. 9. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ATTACKS UPON SUPERSTITION: 7. 10. SPURIOUS MYSTIC WRITINGS OF HERMES, ORPHEUS, AND 8. 11. NEO-PLATONISM AND ITS RELATIONS TO ASTROLOGY AND 9. BOOK II. EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 10. 21. CHRISTIANITY AND NATURAL SCIENCE: BASIL, EPIPHANIUS, 11. 23. THE FUSION OF PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN THOUGHT IN 12. 24. THE STORY OF NECTANEBUS, OR THE ALEXANDER LEGEND 13. 27. OTHER EARLY MEDIEVAL LEARNING: BOETHIUS, ISIDORE, 14. 29. LATIN ASTROLOGY AND DIVINATION, ESPECIALLY IN THE 15. 31. ANGLO-SAXON, SALERNITAN AND OTHER LATIN MEDICINE 16. 33. TREATISES ON THE ARTS BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION OF 17. 34. MARBOD 775 18. 35. THE EARLY SCHOLASTICS: PETER ABELARD AND HUGH 19. 38. SOME TWELFTH CENTURY TRANSLATORS, CHIEFLY OF 20. BOOK V. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 21. 57. EARLY THIRTEENTH CENTURY MEDICINE: GILBERT OF 22. 59. ALBERTUS MAGNUS 517 23. 61. ROGER BACON 616 24. 72. CONCLUSION 969 25. Introduction à l’étude de la chimie des anciens et du moyen âge, 1889. 26. 1911. Popular. 27. INTRODUCTION 28. BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE 29. Chapter 2. Pliny’s Natural History. 30. BOOK I. THE ROMAN EMPIRE 31. CHAPTER II 32. CHAPTER III 33. CHAPTER IV 34. CHAPTER V 35. CHAPTER VI 36. CHAPTER VII 37. CHAPTER VIII 38. CHAPTER IX 39. CHAPTER X 40. introduction, which may be regarded as a piquant appetizer to whet the 41. CHAPTER XI 42. CHAPTER XII 43. BOOK II. EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 44. Chapter 13. The Book of Enoch. 45. BOOK II. EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT 46. CHAPTER XIII 47. CHAPTER XIV 48. CHAPTER XV 49. CHAPTER XVI 50. CHAPTER XVII 51. CHAPTER XVIII 52. CHAPTER XIX 53. CHAPTER XX 54. CHAPTER XXI 55. 329. When or where the nine homilies which compose his _Hexaemeron_ 56. CHAPTER XXII 57. CHAPTER XXIII 58. Chapter 24. The Story of Nectanebus. 59. CHAPTER XXIV 60. prologue which is found only in the oldest extant manuscript, a Bamberg 61. CHAPTER XXV 62. CHAPTER XXVI 63. CHAPTER XXVII 64. CHAPTER XXVIII 65. CHAPTER XXIX 66. CHAPTER XXX 67. introduction? 68. introduction, it would be a more valuable bit of evidence as to his 69. CHAPTER XXXI 70. introduction of Arabic medicine to the western world. 71. CHAPTER XXXII 72. introduction of translations from the Arabic is comparatively free from 73. CHAPTER XXXIII 74. CHAPTER XXXIV 75. introduction of Arabic alchemy, 773; 76. 106. M. A. Ruffer, _Palaeopathology of Egypt_, 1921. 77. 8. Daimon and Hero, with Excursus on Ritual Forms preserved in Greek 78. 1921. See also Thompson (1913), p. 14. 79. 99. “Phyteuma quale sit describere supervacuum habeo cum sit usus eius 80. 4838. Arsenal 981, in an Italian hand, is presumably incorrectly dated 81. 1507. See Justin Winsor, _A Bibliography of Ptolemy’s Geography_, 1884, 82. 1895. Since then I believe that the only work of Galen to be translated 83. 66. Also II, 216; XIX, 19 and 41. 84. 330. Pliny, too (XXI, 88), states that trefoil is poisonous itself and 85. 1867. In English we have _The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria_, 86. 1890. I have found that Riess, while including some of the passages 87. 53. See below, II, 220-21. 88. 1860. Greek text in PG, vol. XVI, part 3; English translation in AN, 89. 3836. Other MSS are: BN 11624, 11th century; BN 12135, 9th century; BN 90. 1888. Schanz (1905) 138, mentions only continental MSS, although there 91. introduction by A. von Premerstein, C. Wessely, and J. Mantuani 92. 177. This is not, however, to be regarded as the invention of lead

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