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Chapter 2 - Drugs, Provenance, and Efficacy in Early Medieval Latin Medical Recipes

from Part I - Transmission of Pharmacological Knowledge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2023

By
Jeffrey Doolittle
Edited by
Petros Bouras-Vallianatos  and
Dionysios Stathakopoulos
Petros Bouras-Vallianatos
Affiliation:
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Dionysios Stathakopoulos
Affiliation:
University of Cyprus
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Summary

The anonymous early medieval compilers of recipe collections in Latin manuscripts are not often thought of as curious about new medical information. While the stereotype of medieval Latin stagnation in medicine has been countered, recipe compilers remain as recyclers of the ancient past. Close analysis of early medieval medical recipes, however, suggests that we should reconsider this view. This chapter focuses on a series of dental recipes found in related medieval adaptations of the medical portions of Pliny’s Natural History which suggests several changes over time, including a growing attention to precision and quantification, the deployment of a diverse range of new ingredients, and a link between claims of efficacy and ingredients identified as coming from Africa, Arabia, and India. These recipes reveal shifting uses for materia medica described in classical sources and provide insight into new ways that medieval medical writers were interpreting and adapting their source materials.

Keywords

Alphabetum Galienidental recipesmateria medicamedical recipespharmacologyPhysica PliniiPliny the Elder
Type
Chapter
Information
Drugs in the Medieval Mediterranean
Transmission and Circulation of Pharmacological Knowledge
 , pp. 58 - 103
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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