The Roman Army Page
... in the Roman army were as much depending on personal relations as on merit, men
serving in the governor's guard could look forward to better army careers. ...
Description: General description of the armed forces of the early empire and links to related sites of
interest.
Category: Society > History > By Time Period > Ancient > Rome > Military
members.tripod.com/~S_van_Dorst/legio.html - 58k - Cached - Similar pages
[This is the material I looked in first.]
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Antiqua Medicina: From Homer to Vesalius
... An on-line exhibition prepared in conjunction with the Colloquium "Antiqua Medicina:
Aspects in Ancient Medicine" held in McLeod Hall, at the Health System of ...
hsc.virginia.edu/hs-library/historical/ antiqua/anthome.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages
[This has an abundance of simple information on medical procedures and technologies.]
ANTIQUA MEDICINA
From Homer to Vesalius
An on-line exhibition prepared in conjunction with the Colloquium "Antiqua
Medicina: Aspects in Ancient Medicine" held in McLeod Hall, at the Health
System of the University of Virginia on February 27, 1997.
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Homer to Hippocrates
Hippocrates
Medicine in Mythology and
Literature
The Hippocratic Corpus
Alexandrian Medicine
Healer Cults and Sanctuaries
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The doctor in Roman Society
Ancient Gynecology
Sanitation Engineering
Galen
Military Medicos
Vesalius the Humanist
Byzantine Medicine
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Medical Iconography
Women in Medicine
Etruscan and Roman Medicine
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Surgery and Surgical
Instruments
Case Studies
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Ancient Rome, Sophisticated Doctors
... But how good was Roman medicine? Ancient Roman medicine was, surprisingly,
incredibly similar to that of the late nineteenth century. ...
www.mcatmaster.com/medicine&war/ancientrome.htm - 15k - Cached - Similar pages
[good pictures, simple and short text.]
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ROMAN MEDICINE
Roman Medicine, Mores. This staff belonged to Aesculapius, the Roman god of healing.
Many contemporary medical organizations use this staff as a symbol. ...
www.dl.ket.org/latin1/mores/medicine/ - 3k - Cached - Similar pages
[Very simplistic style and form, short (usually only one page) but has good bits of
information that students can use and run with.]
Roman Medicine
««This staff belonged to Aesculapius, the Roman god of healing. Many
contemporary medical organizations use this staff as a symbol.
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Table of Contents
History of Roman Medicine
Doctors In Ancient Rome
Surgery In Ancient Rome
Drugs And Medication
Diseases In Rome
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Ancient Rome - Medicine
ANCIENT ROMAN MEDICINE. Ancient Roman medicine was a combination of
phsycial techniques using various tools - and holsitc medicine ...
www.crystalinks.com/romemedicine.html - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
[Good pictures but limited to cutting tools.]
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Greek and Roman Medicine, Science, Mathematics and Industry
... These pages are devoted to medicine, biology, chemistry, physics,
engineering ... Ancient
Navigation and Shipbuilding in the Greek and Roman World; Ancient ...
users.ipa.net/~tanker/science.htm - 4k - Cached - Similar pages
Catiline's Hard Sciences Page
These pages are devoted to medicine, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering,
mathematics, industry, etc.
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Archimedes
o Archimedes
o Archimedia
o Bibliographia Archimedeana gone 4/8/01
Ancient Metallurgy Research Group
Ancient Navigation and Shipbuilding in the Greek and Roman World
Ancient Technology gone 48/01
Antiqua Medicina
Catapults in Greek and Roman Antiquity
Earliest Uses of Various Mathematical Symbols
L'evolution des langues de la communaute scientifique
Greek and Roman Science and Technology
Greek Astronomy
Greek Mathematics and Its Modern Heirs
Greek Science
History of Mathematics
Mathematicians Born Before 1000 AD
Medicina Antiqua
Ptolemy's Geography
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Roman Ceramics
Roman Medical Instruments
Roman Ships gone 4/8/01
Spice Pages
A Taste of the Ancient World
University Chemistry I: Greek Theory and Roman Practice
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RomanII.htm
... MEDICINE/SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: Ancient Medicine/Medicina Antiqua : Good
resource for information on Greek and Roman medicine. Etruscan ...
www.fidnet.com/~weid/RomanII.htm - 71k - Cached - Similar pages
[very large site]
THE ANCIENT ROMAN WORLD
So many sites.... so little time.
THIS SYMBOL DENOTES A PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENT.
Arts
General Information on Ancient Rome
Architecture
History
Barbarians
Literature
Cybertours
Masada Rebellion
Daily Life
Medicine/Science/Technology
Early Christianity
Military Affairs
Emperors/Rulers
Pompeii
Entertainment
Punic Wars
Fall of Rome
Slavery and Spartacus
Games
Women
General Information:
EAWC: WWW Sites Relating to Ancient Rome : Use this site to help you gain more in-depth
information on the Ancient world.
ROME PROJECT: A SPECIAL PLACE : Students of the Dalton School, from elementary
through high school, created this excellent site on the Roman world. In one sense, it is vast covering intensely literature, military, archaeology, political, philosophy, drama, religion,
maps, and much more..
The BBC Roman History Homepage : Contains information on who the Romans were, the city
of Rome, Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Emperors, Senators, Roman technology, and more.
Roman Forum - Exploring an Ancient Marketplace : Lovely place, tour, subject essays,
great for students.
Roman Sites - A catalog of 1252 sites on Roman antiquity.
Jay's History and Technology Back Pages : "A site created especially for those who would
rather play with the cool stuff from history instead of reading about boring politics." A
FANTASTIC SITE TO BEGIN YOUR QUEST.
NM's Creative Impulse.Rome - A great source on various aspects of ancient Rome.
Ancient Sites: Links to Roman Sites
Rome through the Pax Romana
Photographs of Rome
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Links: Roman Special Technologies
... Medicina Antiqua An extensive, scholarly site devoted to the study of ancient medicine.
Bibliographies, on-line resources, hypertexts, and links. Roman Medical ...
www.unc.edu/courses/rometech/ public/links/links_spec.html - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.unc.edu ]
[This site links some of the previously listed sites.]
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The Ancient World Web: Science/Medicine
... to Vesalius An on-line exhibition prepared in conjunction with the Colloquium "Antiqua
Medicina: Aspects in Ancient Medicine". There's a strong Greco-Roman ...
www.julen.net/ancient/Science/Medicine/ - 15k - Cached - Similar pages
[Use this to get to “The Asclepion” page or site.]
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New Page
Site designed by Mark Hayes and Ethan Watrall ; maintained by Nancy Demand (
demand@indiana.edu )
Last updated: 19 May 2000
URL: http://www.iub.edu/~ancmed/intro.htm
Comments: demand@indiana.edu
Copyright 1997, The Trustees of Indiana University
The History of Ancient Medicine
Some links to useful materials
Professor N.H.
Demand
e-mail:
demand@indiana
.edu
Notice: This material is the copyrighted property of the author and should not be
reproduced without the author's permission.
This site offers materials in the history of ancient medicine, from its beginnings in
Mesopotamia through the Hippocratics, with an addendum on Roman midwives..
The approach is to understand medicine within its cultural context rather than to
judge it in terms of modern biomedicine - to investigate different conceptions of
the illness and healing and how the various cultures constructed illnesses.
The view of the history of ancient medicine in this site involves the application
of an anthropological model of a health care system (Arthur Kleinman). It
concerns evidence not only about professional caregivers, but also about the
concepts of illness of ordinary lay people and their everyday efforts to deal with
it, including the god Asclepius and his healing temples. Some of the texts offer a
view behind the traditional screen of privacy of the household to find out about
the care that women gave to other women in the home and family. While
attempts at retrodiagnosis will be considered, basically the site looks at the way
in which culture "constructed" the experience of illness so as to create culturally
specific conditions that have no biomedical counterpart (such as the Greek
Disease of Maidens, or the Egyptian problem of a build-up of .ukedu, or
excrement, and the consequent need for purging treatments)
This site was developed for a course dealing with Egypt, Mesopotamia, China
and India and was framed in terms of Guido Majno's book, The Healing Hand:
Man and Wound in the Ancient World, Cambridge: Harvard Press, 1975, but
with other sources of information to round out the picture. For the sections on
Greek and Roman medicine, it makes use of texts from the period, notably the
Hippocratic writings, many of which can be found in G.E.R.Lloyd, Hippocratic
Medicine
PART ONE: THE ANTHROLOGICAL APPROACH
o
Introduction to the study of ancient medicine: The
evidence
PART TWO: MEDICINE IN OTHER ANCIENT CULTURES
o
o
Medicine in Mesopotamia
Medicine in Egypt
o
Medicine in China:
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/yinya
ng.html:
PART THREE: PREHIPPOCRATIC AND HIPPOCRATIC
MEDICINE
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Medicine in Homer
Rational Models: Ionian philosophy and rhetoric
Hippocrates: Hippocratic, Oath,
Empiricism and the rejection of philosophy
 Hippocrates, Ancient Medicine,
http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/ancimed.ht
ml
 Epidemics I and III
Hippocratic treatments: surgery
 Fractures (Loeb, v. xx, in S.R.)
Treatment: Internal medicine
 Hippocrates, Regimen in Acute Diseases
http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/acutedis.ht
ml
 Ancient drugs
Preventative medicine and the environment
 Hippocrates, Air, Water, Places,
http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/airwatpl.htm
l
 Hippocrates, Regimen in Health
Women and reproduction
 : Hippocrates, *Seed and Nature of Child
http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/wlgr/
wlgr-medicine341.html
 The ancient midwife -- evidence from Rome:
Soranus
For other texts, see Lefkowitz and Fant, Woman's Life in
Greece and Rome,
http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/wlgr/wlgrmedicine.html
The problem of malaria
 E.. Borza, "Some Observations on Malaria,"
Retrospective diagnosis: Sickness and Societ:
Thucydides and the plague
Alternative medicine: Hippocratic doctors, Quacks, and
temple medicine
 Hippocrates, Sacred Disease
http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/sacred.html
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The wandering womb and the Illness of
Maidens
Mabel Lang, Cure and Cult
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Roman Medicine
... MEDICINE Ancient Roman medicine was a combination of phsycial techniques using various
tools - and holsitc medicine using rituals and religious belief systems. ...
legvi.tripod.com/legiovi/id30.html - 24k - Cached - Similar pages
[This has primarily only text but the pictures of the legionary dress are good.]
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The Amazing Ancient World - Book ACT I - PART IV - BRIDGES
... Medicina Antiqua::Ancient Medicine Excellent resource for study of Greco-Roman medicine
and medical thought from Mycenaean times until fall of Roman Empire. ...
www.omnibusol.com/bridges.html - 36k - Cached - Similar pages
[Very large site for all topics, mistresses, wives, etc.—anecdotal information included—makes it more
“human”.]
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History of Western Biomedicine
... Ministry of Culture (GR); Medicine in Ancient Greece, and about Greek & Roman
Surgical Instruments - The Asclepion/U. of Indiana (US); About Aesculapius [G ...
www.mic.ki.se/West.html - 67k - 21 Jul 2002 - Cached - Similar pages
[This is primarily on actual information on tools, Asclepius, etc.]
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Nutriceuticals is a term coined by the popular press as a new
way of looking at health maintenance for many people. In
ancient times, plants were assigned curative powers based
on shape or color; the concept that later became know as
the doctrine of signatures in the Helenistic medical tradition.
Phytotherapy, or phytomedicine, has been a part of both
eastern and western medical traditions since the King of
Sumaria ordered a summary of current knowledge (about
250 medicinal plants) to be assembled in approximately
2000 BC. Combining Arab and Greco-Roman herbology,
over 2000 plants were thought to have medicinal properties
in the ancient world. The Chinese began using ginseng at
least 3000 years ago, and Native Americans were using willow bark tea to reduce fever about the
time most of the "civilized world" was under Roman rule. Every civilization that has recorded its
progress produced a body of knowledge addressing the use of medicinal plants
(pharmacognacy). Though displaced to some degree by the rise of "modern medicine,"
herbalists and herbal preparations have continued to be part of folk and Oriental medical
practice. The recent rise in popularity of these materials in American and European societies
may reflect a growing discontent with established medical practice, or perhaps an interest in more
"natural " modes of healthcare. This is especially true among the elderly.1 (Table 1)
Click Here To Navigate Within Article >>
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SOME BACKGROUND ON PLANTS AND MEDICINE
... was documented on a tablet by 2250 BC Mention of medicinal plants ... medicines were
Hippocrates and Theophrastus (Greeks), Galen and Dioscorides (Roman ...
www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/ economicbotany/Plantmedicine/ - 5k - Cached Similar pages
[This has historical names of people who were prominent in development of this.]
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General information for me
MEDICINAL PLANTS
Many of our current drugs were originally derived from plants and fungi. Use of plants for
medicinal purposes undoubtedly involved trial and error and since communication between
societies was unlimited until relatively recently, very little knowledge was brought in from outside.
Egyptians left records of 700 formulas for medicinal purposes (3500 ybp).
Greek Golden Age
Hippocrates - father of medicine, rational approach to treatment, 300-400 medicinal plants
Aristotle - compiled list of medicinal plants
Theophrastus - Aristotle's star pupil, father of Botany
Dioscorides - largest and most complete work until 14th century - De Materia Medica. Standard
reference work for doctors and pharmacists. Codex Juliana is an elaborate copy of De Materia
Medica that was made for a Roman emperor's daughter around 500 A.D. This book is now in
Vienna. Modern reproductions of this book were available recently.
Very little else done in the West until theRenaissance, people in Dark Ages and Middle Ages felt
that they could not do anything that was as good as the work of the Greeks so they were reluctant
to try to improve on Classical works.
Renaissance
Paracelsus - Presented idea that God had provided signs in plants as to their proper use Walnuts for brain disorders, Hepatica (liver leaf) for liver ailments, etc. Idea was obviously wrong
but he at least tried something new. Something happened to Western attitudes during the
Renaissance, they had enough confidence to do original work and challenge the work of the
Ancients.
The 17th and 18th Century saw the development of hypothesis testing in medicine which
replaced the wild speculation and rumors that were common. Anesthesia was introduced in the
19th century by a dentist in a small town in Georgia who used volatile chemicals (I believe
chloroform) to throw parties with his friends. He realized that these chemicals could be used to
control pain. The 20th century has seen an explosion of development of new procedures and
drugs, many to deal with health problems caused by bad habits and improper diets.
Many modern medicines are derived from fungi (antibiotics, especially) and these will not be
discussed here.
Green Plant Products
Oils and gums - purgatives, carriers, emulsifiers
Volatile oils and resins - antiseptics
Steroids and Alkaloids - often occur as glycosides (sugar molecule(s) attached). The glycoside is
often the active form
Steroids
Steroid backbone Testosterone
Steroids occur in many unrelated plants, probably as feeding deterrents. An interesting
example of the ability of insects to take advantage of plant products is the relationship
between Monarch butterflies and milkweeds. The monarch lays its eggs on milkweeds
and the larvae accumulate the steroids contained in these plants. These compounds make
the butterflies poisonous to predators throughout their lives.
Animal hormones are steroids. Since the steroid "backbone" is complex and therefore
difficult to manufacture synthetically, plants are used as sources of precursors.
Dioscorea - Yams - produce saponins (diosgenin) which are extracted from tubers. These
compounds are similar to human sex hormones. Used in birth control pills, fertility drugs,
female hormones, cortisone and hydrocortisone.
Diosgenin
Digitalis purpurea - Digitoxin- affects heart muscle by changing rhythmn of beat so that systolic
contraction is lengthened, referred to as a cardiac glycoside.
Alkaloids
Alkaloids are N-containing compounds which are found in a wide array of plants. They are
produced by a number of biochemical pathways, a number of them are produced from amino
acids.
Quinine - Cinchona officinalis (Rubiaceae) is used to treat malaria. It was synthesized in 1944 but
strains of Plasmodium, the sporozoan which causes malaria, have developed resistance to the
synthetic quinine. However, natural quinine is still effective so interest in the plants has been
renewed. Quinidine is another product of this plant which is used to control heart problems. Gin
and tonic.
Ephedrine - Ephedra sinica (Gymnosperm), used as a decongestant
Cocaine - Erythroxylum coca - S.A. Andes, used as calmative and local anesthetic. A synthetic
form called Novocain is similar and has replaced cocaine as a local anesthetic.
Opium - Papaver somniferum (Papaveraceae), one of oldest pain-relieving drugs, native to
Eastern Europe and W. Asia. Opium latex is harvested by scoring capsule, allowing it to dry and
then collecting dried resin, this process can be repeated many times. There are 26 alkaloids
known to occur in Opium latex, most important ones are morphine, codeine, and papaverine.
Morphine - most abundant, potent pain killer, addictive. Heroin is synthesized from morphine.
Codeine - less potent than morphine, non-habit forming, used in prescription and non-prescription
pain killers.
Papaverine - used to control internal spasms
Tropane alkaloids - Most are obtained from Atropa belladona (Solanaceae). Belladonna means
beautiful lady, drops from an extract of this plant expand pupils, resulting in a wide-eyed, innocent
look. The major compounds are atropine and scopalamine, which are used to control smooth
muscle spasms - cardiac medicines, pupil dilators, stomach and bladder cramps
Veratrum viride (Liliaceae) produces a number of alkaloids used to treat heart disease, alkaloids
are extracted from roots.
Resperine - Rauvolfia serpentina - snakeroot, alkaloids are used in treating hypertension, mental
illness, compound is extracted from roots.
Vinblastine and leurocristine - Catharanthus roseus - used for some forms of leukemia, Hodgkin's
disease.
Podophyllum peltatum - Mayapple - alkaloids used for treatment of lymphocytic leukemia.
Other compounds
Chaulmoogra oil - Hydnocarpus - treatment of leprosy
Salacin - Salix alba - aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is derivative of salicin.
Psyllium - Plantago - a colloidal mucliage used for constipation and diarrhea.
Aloe gel - Aloe barbadensis - aloe gel is used in shampoos, lotions, burn remedies.
Ipecac syrup - Cephaelis ipecacuanha - induces vomiting
Chymopapain - Carica papaya - enzyme used for treatment of slipped disks; injected near region
of disk slippage and dissolves cartilage and relieves pressure.
There is currently much investigation into new medicinal uses for plants. Herbal medicine has
been practiced in China for thousands of years and is still very important. "Primitive" cultures are
being investigated for their uses of plant materials. It is often difficult to distinguish authentic cures
from "magic" cures.
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Classics and the Ancient World, University of Texas Press
... Jashemski, A Pompeian Herbal: Ancient and Modern Medicinal Plants. ...
Jones, Boats.
Kleiner and Matheson, I Claudia II: Women in Roman Art and Society. ...
www.utexas.edu/utpress/subjects/classics.html - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.utexas.edu ]
[This is primarily a site for books to be referenced, unless you can find the text of these somewhere.]
Classics and the Ancient World
Do you want to receive announcements of new titles in this subject area?
Of related interest:
Archaeoastronomy
Journal of the History of Sexuality
Oratory of Classical Greece
al-Andalusi
Andrews
Burn
Carey
Carradice
Carter and
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Davis
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Dreyfus
Evans
Faulkner
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Filer
Foster
Freeman
Freeman
Futrell
Gagarin
Gagarin and
MacDowell
Galinsky
Gardner
Gill and
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Goff
Science in the Medieval World: "Book of the
Categories of Nations"
Amulets of Ancient Egypt
Greek Myths
Aeschines
Greek Coins
The Ages of Homer
Sandy Pylos: An Archaeological History from Nestor
to Navarino
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Pergamon: The Telephos Frieze from the Great
Altar, Volumes 1 and 2
The Empress Theodora: Partner of Justinian (read
an excerpt)
The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
Haunted Greece and Rome: Ghost Stories from
Classical Antiquity
Disease
Ancient Egyptian Literature: An Anthology (read an
excerpt)
Ireland and the Classical World (read an excerpt)
War, Women, and Druids: Eyewitness Reports and
Early Accounts of the Ancient Celts (read an excerpt)
Blood in the Arena: The Spectacle of Roman Power
(read an excerpt)
Antiphon the Athenian: Oratory, Law, and Justice in
the Age of the Sophists (read an excerpt)
Antiphon and Andocides (read an excerpt)
Classical and Modern Interactions: Postmodern
Architecture, Multiculturalism, Decline, and Other
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Lies and Fiction in the Ancient World
History, Tragedy, Theory: Dialogues on Athenian
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Green and
Handley
Hart
Hedrick
Jashemski
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Kleiner and
Matheson
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Images of the Greek Theatre
Egyptian Myths
History and Silence: Purge and Rehabilitation of
Memory in Late Antiquity
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Plants
Disputes and Democracy: The Consequences of
Litigation in Ancient Athens (read an excerpt)
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I Claudia II: Women in Roman Art and Society
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Mirhady and Too Isocrates I (read an excerpt)
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Greek and Roman Comedy: Translations and
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Interpretations of Four Representative Plays (read an
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Rabinowitz and Among Women: From the Homosocial to the
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Homoerotic in the Ancient World (read an excerpt)
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Shapiro et al.
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A Pompeian Herbal
Ancient and Modern Medicinal Plants
By Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski
Plant Portraits by Victoria I and Lillian Nicholson Meyer
Photographs by Stanley A. Jashemski and others
"The appeal of such a work will be wide, encompassing professionals and laymen alike.
The book is the type which a visitor to Pompeii, or to Italy generally, would want to take
along as a vade mecum [guidebook]."
—Robert I. Curtis, Professor of Classics, University of Georgia
When workmen excavating the ruins of Pompeii eagerly gathered the native medicinal plants
growing there, Wilhelmina Jashemski discovered that this was another example of the continuity
of life in the shadow of Vesuvius. Many of the plants used for herbal medicine around Pompeii
today are the same ones that ancient authorities such as Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides
recommended for treating the same types of disorders.
In this book, Jashemski presents an herbal of thirty-six medicinal plants, most of them known to
the ancients and still employed today. She describes each plant's contemporary medicinal uses
and compares them to ancient practices as recorded in literary sources. Scientific, English, and
Italian names and the plant's mythological associations complete the entries, while elegant, fullpage portraits depict each plant visually.
Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski is internationally known for her work in Pompeii. She is
Professor Emerita of Ancient History at the University of Maryland, College Park, and author of
the monumental The Gardens of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Villas Destroyed by Vesuvius .
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MATERIA MEDICA
... The famous book "De Materia Medica" by the military doctor Dioscorides, describing
more than six hundred vegetable, animal and mineral remedies, laid the basis ...
www.home.gil.com.au/~bpittman/galen/materia.html - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
[Contributions of major players in Roman medicine.]
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The Works of Pedanios Dioscorides: a Rare Book Exhibit at The ...
... His fame rests upon his pharmaceutical book, best known by its Latin title of
De materia medica, which was written in Greek in about 60 AD As originally ...
members.aol.com/arbexhibit/diosc96.htm - 12k - Cached - Similar pages
The Works of Pedanios Dioscorides
This month's exhibit focuses on the works of Pedanios Dioscorides, the ancient Greek writer who
was the father of medical botany. Born in Anazarbus in Cilicia (modern southern Turkey),
Dioscorides studied medicine under Areios at Tarsus, and served as a physician and soldier in
the Roman armies in the period when Nero, Caligula, and Claudius were Emperors.
His fame rests upon his pharmaceutical book, best known by its Latin title of De materia medica,
which was written in Greek in about 60 A.D. As originally formulated, the work was divided into
five books. The first book dealt with aromatic plants, oils, ointments, trees and shrubs; the second
with animals, animal parts, milk and dairy products, cereals, and sharp herbs; the third with roots,
juices, herbs, and seeds; the fourth with herbs and roots not previously mentioned; and the fifth
with wines and minerals. These are sometimes accompanied by a sixth book which deals with
poisons, and on rare occasions by a seventh and eighth book dealing with animal bites and
venomous animals.
The work served as the cornerstone for western pharmaceutical and herbal writing for the next
1500 years and was early translated into Syriac, Arabic, and Persian as well as Latin exerting a
profound influence on the development of medicine in the Near East as well as in Europe. Over
the centuries of manuscript copying numerous scribal errors crept into the text. these were
compounded by the tendency of European scholars and physicians to equate local plants with the
Asian flora discussed in the original text to produce misidentification of numerous plants with
sometimes disastrous results. With the dawn of the Renaissance in Europe scholars and
physicians were finally able to put aside the unquestioning dictates imposed by the medieval
concept of auctoritas and begin reexamining the work on several fronts. Initially scholarship
focused on a comparison of different versions of the text to eliminate scrbal error. Later, however,
scholars and physicians began looking at the plants themselves, sometimes journeying in the
footsteps of Dioscorides to find the plants originally cited, other times making a more sedentary
journey through the works of the numerous writers who had built the materia medica on
Dioscorides' works with an eye to clarifying which plant was which, while yet others of a more
daring bent conducted experiments with the plants on patients and recorded their observations.
While the first printed edition of Dioscorides dates from the late 1470's, the earliest edition at The
Holden Arboretum is considerably later.
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New Page
The Asclepion
A companion web page to the course Ancient Medicine at the University
of Indiana, this page offers pictures of ancient surgical instruments,
essays, a syllabus with plenty of linked resources, and more. [English]
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