Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 44

QUINTUS SERENUS SAMMONICUS (d. 211 or 212) De medicina . . . per D. Caesarium . . . Item Q. Rhemnii Fannii Palaemonis, De ponderibus & mensuris. Apud Simonem Colinaeum 1533 30 ll. 17.1 cm.

A father and son named Quintus Serenus Sammonicus lived during the late second and early third centuries. Few details regarding their lives are available but it is known that the father was put to death by the Emperor Caracalla purportedly for the use of magic in his medical practice. Although much research has been done, it has not been possible to ascertain which of the two actually wrote the present work. A medical poem of 1,115 hexameters, it is primarily a compendium of remedies for the poor, many of which were taken from the writings of Pliny and Dioscorides (see No. 28 ff.). The first part of the poem consists of remedies for various disorders arranged a capite ad calcem, the popular head to foot arrangement favored during the late Middle Ages. The remainder of the poem contains recipes for such medical problems as fever, fractures, insomnia, epilepsy, jaundice, warts, as well as many others. Although many of the remedies are practical and useful, others are disgusting and border on the superstitious. A popular book, it was printed in Leipzig as late as 1786. The poem is here edited by Johannes Caesarius (1468?-1550). Caesarius, a physician and philosopher of Cologne, also edited and prepared commentaries on the works of Celsus and Pliny. Also included with Serenus Sammonicus' poem is De ponderibus et mensuris. Attributed to Quintus Remmius Palaemon (fl. 48 A.D.), it is a short poem on weights and measures.

See Related Record(s): 28

Cited references: Cushing S190; Durling 4190; Wellcome 5938