Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 59

RHAZES [ABU BAKR MUHAMMAD IBN ZAKARIYA, AL-RAZI] (865-925) Opera parva. [Impressa per Gilbertum de Villiers, impensis Johannis de Ferrariis, alias de Jolitis, ac Vincentii de Prothonariis 1511] [8] cclxxxiv ll. 15.5 cm.

Rhazes (commonly so called from his birthplace in Persia) was one of the great Persian physicians in this period when Arabian medicine was flourishing and when independent thought, especially as to therapeutics, was leading away from fixed dogma and Galenic rules. Rhazes had a thorough liberal education before deciding, at the age of thirty, to devote himself to medicine. He studied medicine at Baghdad, where he later gained fame as director of the hospital, teacher, and court physician. He was a pure Hippocratist, yet his inquiring mind and his writings covered the fields of medicine, philosophy, religion, mathematics, and astronomy. Of his more than two hundred writings, however, the majority have been lost. Of his medical writings, the most important are his Kitab al-hawi, an immense collection of excerpts and notes from classical physicians and from his own practice, which might have served as an encyclopedia of medicine had it been organized and completed; and Almansor (see No. 61). His most important individual work is his vivid description of smallpox, clearly distinguishing it from measles, with which it had earlier been confused. The present work is an anthology of various of Rhazes' shorter writings on medicine and surgery and includes parts of the Almansor and Aphorisms. Although apparently complete, it lacks the final two works listed in the lengthy subtitle which serves as a table of contents.

See Related Record(s): 61

Cited references: Durling 3312; Garrison-Morton 41 (1510 ed.); Wellcome 5459

Gift of John Martin, M.D.