Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 82

MOSES MAIMONIDES (1135-1204) Aphorismi . . . ex Galeno . . . collecti . . . Item, locorum quorundam apud Galenum sibi ipsis contradicentium castigatio & notatio. Denique, Joannis Damasceni Aphorismi. Ex officina Henricpetrina 1579 [80] 542 [2] pp. 16.5 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 81

Maimonides' medical treatises were written during the final years of his life and, like most of his works, were composed in Arabic. The present work, his most popular, is a collection of 1500 aphorisms taken from Galen's works and includes critical remarks by Maimonides. Maimonides was careful to provide the reader with references to his Galenic sources and these are included after each aphorism. The aphorisms have been arranged in 25 books and cover a broad range of medical practice including anatomy, physiology, symptomatology, diagnosis, therapeutics, surgery, and gynecology as well as many diseases and other aspects of medicine. In the final chapter, Maimonides presented his criticisms of Galenic medicine and philosophy, included some forty topics about which Galen contradicted himself, and concluded with a discussion of Galen's teleology from a biblical point of view. The work was translated into Hebrew in the thirteenth century and into Latin at Bologna in 1489. This copy includes an extensive index at the book's beginning as well as a misnumbered chapter which makes the book appear to be missing the important, final chapter. Also included in this edition are aphorisms of Yuhanna Ibn Masawayh. Known in the west as Mesuë the Elder and sometimes Johannis Damascenus, he was the son of a pharmacist in Jundi-Shapur and studied medicine at Baghdad. He was a Christian physician and later in his career was appointed director of the medical school of Baghdad. Mesuë translated many Greek works into Arabic and also is credited with several medical treatises. Among these is the earliest extant Arabic work on ophthalmology. His Aphorisms were very popular during the Middle Ages and were frequently quoted. The seventy-six aphorisms in the book are broad in scope and usually limited to a single sentence

Cited references: Durling 3303; Garrison-Morton 53 (1508 ed.); Wellcome 3990

Gift of John Martin, M.D.