Persistence and Innovation in the Greco-Roman Medical Tradition: The Reading and Writing Practices of a Tenth-Century Monk.

Abstract

By offering an organic reading of the tenth-century medical miscellany BnF, Lat. 7028, this article questions assumptions about the erratic and rudimentary nature of early medieval medicine, highlighting the compiler's purposeful selection and manipulation of contents. Following the tenets of the ancient sect of Rationalists, as described in Celsus' De medicina, the compiler gathered a consistent yet non-linear compendium, blending texts about the mythological Greek origins of medicine, anatomical parts, natural philosophy and different sets of therapeutical options, encompassing regimen, medications, and surgery. The Greek-Latin monk Johannes Philagathos is arguably the intellectual author of this eclectic miscellany, which he assembled thanks to networks of people and books that circulated between Byzantine and Ottonian areas. While preserving ancient and late antique medical traditions and visual models, this manuscript witnessed the reception of medicinal drugs from eastern lands and their inclusion in recipes, a few centuries before the flourishing of the School of Salerno.