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

  • from Part I - Transmission of Pharmacological Knowledge
  • Edited by Petros Bouras-Vallianatos, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Dionysios Stathakopoulos, University of Cyprus
  • Book:
    Drugs in the Medieval Mediterranean
    Published online:
    19 October 2023
    Print publication:
    02 November 2023, pp 58-103

  • 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.