''Iatrosophia'' ( grc, ιατρoσóφια, literally 'medical wisdom'), is a genre of Greek medical literature, originating in
Byzantium. It comprises medical handbooks containing recipes or therapeutic advice, but the term can also be used of orally transmitted medical knowledge.
Etymology
The term comes from grc, ἰᾱτρός 'doctor' and grc, σοϕία 'knowledge', and gave rise to the term ''Iatrosophist'' ( grc, ἰατροσοφιστής, la, iatrosophista), denoting a professor of medicine (from grc, ἰᾱτρός 'doctor' and grc, σοϕιστής 'learned person').
Origins and development
It is thought that the ''iatrosophia'' genre arose in Byzantine hospitals, as compendia of recipes and therapeutic advice. The earliest known examples date from perhaps as early as the tenth century CE, but they survive in large numbers only from the fifteenth century onwards. After the fall of Byzantium, the iatrosophist tradition was maintained by Greek Orthodox monasteries and in secular, Greek-speaking parts of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
into the early twentieth century. The texts drew on earlier Greek and Latin medical writing by Hippocratic writers such as
Dioscorides
Pedanius Dioscorides ( grc-gre, Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of '' De materia medica'' (, On Medical Material) —a 5-vo ...
and
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one ...
, and, more importantly, later Byzantine authors (writing around the fourth to seventh centuries CE) such as
Oribasius
Oribasius or Oreibasius ( el, Ὀρειβάσιος; c. 320 – 403) was a Greek medical writer and the personal physician of the Roman emperor Julian. He studied at Alexandria under physician Zeno of Cyprus before joining Julian's retinue. He ...
,
Aetios of Amida Aetius, Aëtius, or Aetios (Ἀέτιος) may refer to:
People
* Aetius (philosopher), 1st- or 2nd-century doxographer and Eclectic philosopher
* Aëtius of Antioch, 4th-century Anomean theologian
* Flavius Aetius, Western Roman commander in chi ...
,
Alexander of Tralles
Alexander of Tralles ( grc-x-byzant, Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Τραλλιανός; ca. 525– ca. 605) was one of the most eminent physicians in the Byzantine Empire. His birth date may safely be put in the 6th century AD, for he mentions Aëtiu ...
and
Paulus Aegineta
Paul of Aegina or Paulus Aegineta ( el, Παῦλος Αἰγινήτης; Aegina, ) was a 7th-century Byzantine Greek physician best known for writing the medical encyclopedia '' Medical Compendium in Seven Books.'' He is considered the “Fathe ...
. From the tenth century, influence from Arabic medicine (itself previously influenced by Greek medical writing) is also possible. Yet it is also clear that writers in this genre continually updated and adapted their texts on the basis of new information and experience.
Modern research
Although nineteenth- and twentieth-century historians of medicine viewed ''iatrosophia'' texts as corrupt and degraded forms of more prestigious Classical medicine, recent work has emphasised that in their historical context they were intellectually valid works. Some researchers have even argued that some of the recipes in ''iatrosophia'' texts reflect clinically effective pharmocology.
Few texts in this genre have so far been edited or translated, surviving only in manuscript form. One survey of 700 Ottoman-era Greek medical manuscripts found that 45% were ''iatrosophia''.
[Andreas Lardos, José Prieto-Garcia, and Michael Heinrich, 'Resins and Gums in Historical Iatrosophia Texts from Cyprus: A Botanical and Medico-pharmacological Approach', ''Frontiers in Pharmacology'' (1 July 2011), .]
References
{{reflist
Byzantine medicine
Greek words and phrases