Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 32

ARETAEUS (ca. 81-ca. 138) Libri VIII. Ruffi Ephesii de hominis partibus Libri III. Junio Paulo Crasso interprete. Accessere . . . Ruffi liber de vesicae ac renum affectibus, eiusdem de medicamentis purgantibus. Apud Guilielmum Morelium & Jacobum Puteanum 1554 [15] 553 [15] pp. 11.3 cm.

All that is known of Aretaeus with certainty is that he was a Greek physician from the Roman province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor who described diseases in excellent stylistic Greek. He studied medicine in Alexandria and is believed to have practiced there and in Italy, perhaps at Rome. It is probable that he was a contemporary of Galen (see No. 36 ff.) although they do not mention one another in their writings. Aretaeus was a follower of the pneumatic school and left many descriptions of disease that are unsurpassed for their accuracy and elegance. The eight books of Aretaeus in this volume are: De causis et signis acutorum morborum libri duo, De causis et notis diuturnorum affectuum libri duo, De morborum acutorum curatione libri duo and, De morborum diuturnorum curatione libri duo. Also included as an addendum are textual notes by Guillaume Morel (1505-1564). These books on acute and chronic diseases are all that remain of his works and, in them, Aretaeus discusses the causes, symptoms, and therapy for a wide variety of diseases. The works contain his fine descriptions of tetanus, epilepsy, asthma, migraine, jaundice, diarrhea, dropsy, elephantiasis, dysentery, diabetes, pneumonia, and an early account of diphtheria. Also included with the works of Aretaeus are several of the extant treatises of Rufus of Ephesus (see No. 35) including De corporis humani partium appellationibus libri tres which here has its own special half title page. The first Latin edition of this work was published only two years earlier at Venice and, like the present volume, was edited by Giunio Paolo Crasso (d. 1574). The first Greek edition of Aretaeus, edited by Jacques Goupyl (1525-ca. 1564) and Guillaume Morel, was published at Paris the same year as the present volume.

See Related Record(s): 36 35

Cited references: Durling 257; Wellcome 394

Gift of John Martin, M.D.