Scribonius Largus (c. 1-c. 50) was the court physician to the Roman emperor

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor ...

. About 47 AD, at the request of

Gaius Julius Callistus Gaius Julius Callistus (flourished 1st century) was a Greek imperial freedman during the reigns of Roman Emperors Caligula and Claudius. Callistus was originally a freedman of Caligula, and was given great authority during his reign, which he used ...

, the emperor's freedman, he drew up a list of 271 prescriptions (''Compositiones''), most of them his own, although he acknowledged his indebtedness to his tutors, to friends, and to the writings of eminent physicians. Certain traditional remedies are also included. The work has no pretensions to style, and contains many colloquialisms. The greater part of it was transferred without acknowledgment to the work of Marcellus Empiricus (c. 410), ''De Medicamentis Empiricis, Physicis, et Rationabilibus'', which is of great value for the correction of the text of Largus. See the edition of the ''Compositiones'' by S. Sconocchia ( Teubner 1983), which replaced the well-outdated editionOnline but not complete.
/ref> of G. Helmreich (Teubner 1887).

Works

* ''De compositione medicamentorum liber''. Cratandrus, Basileae 152
Digital edition
by the

University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (german: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of t ...

* Kai Brodersen: ''Scribonius Largus, Der gute Arzt / Compositiones''. Latin and German. Marix, Wiesbaden 2016. *Scribonius Largus and Joelle Jouanna Bouchet (ed.) ''Compositions médicales'' (''Collection des universités de France. Série latine''; 412). Paris : Les Belles lettres, 2016, cop. 2016. .

References

*James Grout
''Scribonius Largus'', part of the Encyclopædia Romana
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scribonius Largus Ancient Roman writers Silver Age Latin writers 1st-century Roman physicians 1st-century writers Scribonii AD 1 births 50 deaths