Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 20
AULUS CORNELIUS CELSUS (25 B.C.-50 A.D.) De re medica. Per Joan. Sec[erium] 1528 288 [16] 29 [3] ll. 16 cm.
For more information on this author or work, see number: 19
Practically nothing is known of Celsus' life and some authorities believe that he may not have written De medicina but compiled it from now lost Greek sources. This work on medicine is actually only a section from a larger encyclopedia he wrote, containing sections on agriculture, rhetoric, philosophy, the military arts, and jurisprudence. Ludwig Choulant notes that it is the first edition of Celsus to contain commentary and annotations and he judges it as more esteemed and rarer than the Aldine edition (see No. 21) published the same month (Handbuch der Bücherkunde für die Aeltere Medicin. Leipzig, 1828. p. 109). Edited by Johannes Caesarius (1468?-1550), the book also contains an extensive alphabetical index to Celsus. Melanchthon was educated at Heidelberg and Tübingen and was a leading theologian and educator. He was a close friend and collaborator of Martin Luther and his Loci communes rerum theologicarum published in 1521 constituted the first systematic statement of Protestant theology. His plan for organizing schools was adopted nationally, thereby establishing a Protestant public school system. He was also author of the Augsburg Confession of 1530, one of the basic Protestant creeds. An important and prolific writer as well, he found time to write this short tract in praise and support of medicine. Serenus Sammonicus' (see No. 44) Praecepta medica, edited by Caesarius, is also included here as is Palaemon's poem on weights and measures (see No. 44). Some manuscripts attribute the latter poem to a Ramius Favinus or Rammius Flavianus while other sources attribute it to Palaemon (fl. 48 A.D.) and Theodorus Priscianus (fl. 500 A.D.). A marginal note in this edition indicates that Priscianus is considered to be the author but that Palaemon wrote the major part of the book. Palaemon, a manumitted slave, became a highly successful teacher in Rome but was also a most disreputable individual in private life. He is credited with being the first Roman to write a comprehensive grammatical treatise. Priscianus was a Latin grammarian who taught in Constantinople. He compiled Institutiones grammaticae, an extensive Latin grammar in eighteen books and one of the few to survive from that era.
Cited references: Cushing C144; Durling 909; Wellcome 1396
Gift of John Martin, M.D.
Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 20
PHILIPP MELANCHTHON (1497-1560) Encomium medicinae.
For more information on this author or work, see number: 20
Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 20
QUINTUS SERENUS SAMMONICUS (d. 211 or 212) Praecepta medica.
For more information on this author or work, see number: 44
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