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Chapter 12 - Making Connections between the Medical Properties of Stones and Philosophy in the Work of Albertus Magnus

from Part II - The Borders of Pharmacology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2023

By
Athanasios Rinotas
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

Albertus Magnus was not a physician but manifested a positive attitude towards medicine. His main interest was in harmonising Galenic and Aristotelian doctrines that seemed to overlap on certain subjects; thus, he created a medico-philosophical approach to many illnesses and how they develop. In his On Minerals he writes of the special properties of stones and refers to certain stones as being capable of treating such diseases as epilepsy and melancholy. Yet Albertus does not refer to the way in which these stones could act and affect the aforementioned diseases. Therefore, the question that emerges is whether one can detect passages in his oeuvre which allow us to reconstruct a possible medico-philosophical explanation for the way in which these properties became associated with specific diseases. This chapter’s aim is to attempt to gather the scattered pieces of information from Albertus’ work and reconstruct this potential medico-philosophical formula

Keywords

Albertus Magnusmedicinemagical propertiesepilepsymelancholy
Type
Chapter
Information
Drugs in the Medieval Mediterranean
Transmission and Circulation of Pharmacological Knowledge
 , pp. 366 - 387
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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