Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 122

GIOVANNI ARCOLANI (ca. 1390-1458) Opera, quibus . . . omnium morborum & symptomatum . . . causas & remediorum praesidia exponit, partium quoque situ & constitutione demonstratis. In quibus sunt & commentarii in Razis Arabis nonum lib. ad regem Almansorem . . . Sunt autem ad optimorum. Per Henricum Petrum 1540 [12] 747 pp., illus. 30.9 cm.

Arcolani, professor of medicine and surgery at Bologna and later at Padua, was one of a number of individuals who led in the struggle to break away from the rigid scholasticism of his time. This work, first published in 1480 under the title Practica, is chiefly a commentary on the ninth book of Rhazes' Almansorem (see No. 61). It was long used as a text in medical schools during the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and is of special interest in the history of dentistry because it contains the first description of the use of gold leaf in filling teeth. There are also several chapters on diseases of the teeth in which he treats his subject fully and with considerable accuracy. Arcolani also included material on the anatomy and physiology of the teeth but his information is largely incomplete and inaccurate. This has been attributed to the fact that he obtained most of his material from books and did not take time to verify it by direct observation. The single page of illustrations at the beginning of the book depicts a curved forceps used for extracting teeth, another forceps called a "stork's bill" used for removing tooth fragments and roots, two cautery irons, and a catheter.

See Related Record(s): 61

Cited references: Durling 249

Gift of John Martin, M.D.