Gilbertus Anglicus (or Gilbert of England, also known as ''Gilbertinus''; c. 1180 – c. 1250) was a

medieval English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. He is known chiefly for his encyclopedic work, the ''Compendium of Medicine'' (''Compendium Medicinæ''), most probably written between 1230 and 1250. This medical treatise was an attempt at a comprehensive overview of the best practice in pharmacology, medicine, and surgery at the time. His medical works, alongside those of John of Gaddesden, "formed part of the core curriculum that underpinned the practice of medicine for the next 400 years".

Life

Little is securely known of the detail of the life of Gilbert. Born about 1180, he received his early education in England before leaving for Europe. It is known that he studied at Western Europe's first and foremost school of medicine, the

Schola Medica Salernitana The Schola Medica Salernitana ( it, Scuola Medica Salernitana) was a Medieval medical school, the first and most important of its kind. Situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea in the south Italian city of Salerno, it was founded in the 9th century and rose ...

at Salerno, Italy, most probably under the famed surgeon, Roger of Parma. He returned to England to serve under Archbishop Hugo Walter, but left England again some time after the archbishop's death in 1205. It is thought that he spent the remainder of his life on the continent, gaining the soubriquet ''Gilbert the Englishman'' from his land of origin. His major work, the ''Compendium Medicinae'', written in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, was produced at some time after the year 1230. The work, running to seven books, is an attempt to provide a comprehensive encyclopedia of medical and surgical knowledge as it existed in his day. Gilbert does not claim to be the originator of most of the material in his book. He quotes extensively from Roger of Parma, and acknowledges that his work is indebted to Greek physicians including

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 ...

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history o ...

and

Theophilus Protospatharius Theophilus Protospatharius ( el, Θεόφιλος Πρωτοσπαθάριος; ca. 7th century) was the author of several extant Greek medical works of uncertain status, either from Philaretus or Philotheus. Nothing is known of his life or the ti ...

, Arab physicians such as

Averroes Ibn Rushd ( ar, ; full name in ; 14 April 112611 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( ), was an Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psy ...

and Avicenna, as well as a number of the Salernitan Masters of Italy. The Compendium covers the full range of medical and significantly also the surgical treatments in use at the time. Gilbert was one of the most famous European physicians of the period. His fame lasted for centuries after his death. His ''Compendium'' was published in print in 1510, and was reprinted again as late as 1608. Gilbert is listed with the great physicians of all time in the verse of

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

. ::''Wel knew he the olde Esculapius'' ::And Deyscorides and eek Rufus, ::Olde Ypocras, Haly and Galyen, ::Serapion, Razis and Avycen, ::Averrois, Damascien and Constantyn, ::Bernard and Gatesden and Gilbertyn.''

Works

* ''Compendium Medicinae'' (ca.1230) :* sources named are;

Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His politi ...

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

Rufus Rufus is a masculine given name, a surname, an Ancient Roman cognomen and a nickname (from Latin '' rufus'', "red"). Notable people with the name include: Given name Politicians * Rufus Ada George (born 1940), Nigerian politician * Rufus ...

, Macrobius,

Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...

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 ...

, Theodoras Priscianus, Theophilus Philaretes, Stephanon (of Athens?), the Arabians

Haly Abbas 'Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi ( fa, علی بن عباس مجوسی; died between 982 and 994), also known as Masoudi, or Latinized as Haly Abbas, was a Persian physician and psychologist from the Islamic Golden Age, most famous for the ''Kitab ...

Rhazes Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (full name: ar, أبو بکر محمد بن زکریاء الرازي, translit=Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī, label=none), () rather than ar, زکریاء, label=none (), as for example in , or in . In m ...

, Isaac Judaeus, Joannitius, Janus Damascenus, Jacobus Alucindi, Avicenna and

; the Salernian writers, quoted generally as Salernitani and specifically Constantine Africanus, Nicholas Praepositus, Romoaldus Ricardus and Maurus, and two otherwise unknown authors, Torror and Funcius.

Translations

Gilbertus's ''Compendium medicinae'' was translated into

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

in the early 15th century. The gynecological and obstetrical portions of that translation were soon excerpted and circulated widely as an independent text known in modern scholarship as ''The Sickness of Women''. That text was then modified further in the mid-15th century by the addition of materials from Muscio and other sources on obstetrics; this is known as ''The Sickness of Women 2''. Between them, the two versions of ''The Sickness of Women'' were the most widely circulated Middle English texts on women's medicine in the 15th century, even more popular than the several Middle English versions of the '' Trotula'' texts.Monica H. Green, ''Making Women’s Medicine Masculine: The Rise of Male Authority in Pre-Modern Gynaecology'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 190-91.

Bibliography

* Henry Ebenezer Handerson: ''Gilbertus Anglicus - Medicine of the Thirteenth Century''. 1918. * Faye Marie Getz: ''Healing & Society in Medieval England - A Middle English Translation of the Pharmaceutical Writings of Gilbertus Anglicus''. University of Wisconsin Press 1991. . * Michael R. McVaugh, “Who Was Gilbert the Englishman?,” in ''The Study of Medieval Manuscripts of England: Festschrift in Honor of Richard W. Pfaff'', ed. George Hardin Brown and Linda Ehrsam Voigts (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2011; Turnhout: Brepols, 2011), pp. 295–324. * Monica H. Green and Linne R. Mooney, "The Sickness of Women," in ''Sex, Aging, and Death in a Medieval Medical Compendium: Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.52, Its Texts, Language, and Scribe'', ed. M. Teresa Tavormina, Medieval & Renaissance Texts and Studies, 292, 2 vols. (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006), vol. 2, pp. 455–568. . * * Bachoffner Pierre. ''Gilbert l'Anglais ou Gilbert de Paris'' ? : Gundolf Keil, ''Magister Giselbertus de villa parisiensis. Betrachtungen zu den Kranewittbeeren und Gilberts pharmakologischem Renomm, Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie'', 1995, vol. 83, n° 305, pp. 207–208.

References

External links

* https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16155/16155-h/16155-h.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Anglicus, Gilbertus 1180s births 1250 deaths 12th-century English medical doctors 12th-century English writers 13th-century English medical doctors 13th-century English writers Schola Medica Salernitana