Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 58

YūHANNā IBN SERAPION (9th cent.) Practi[ca]. Impressum mandato & expensis heredum Octaviani Scoti ac sociorum 1530] 211 ll. 30.4 cm.

By the ninth century, nearly all of the important Arabian medical works were derived from Greek writers and translated into Arabic. In the Renaissance they were then translated into Latin from Arabic and erroneously taken to be Arabian works. Such is the case with Serapion the Elder, a Syriac Christian, whose principal work, called Aphorisms, was used for centuries in the Arabian medical schools. Originally written in Syriac, then translated into Arabic and eventually into Latin, it was first printed in 1479. The shortened version of his work, variously called the Practica, Breviarium, Pandectae, or Aggregator, is an encyclopedic work which was a frequent source of quotation by men of science and medicine during the Renaissance. It is here accompanied by the Practica brevis of Joannes Platearius (fl. ca. 1100). Platearius was one of the seven chief masters of the school of Salerno and his synopsis of medical thought and practice was one of the outstanding works of the period.

Cited references: Durling 4777

Gift of John Martin, M.D.