Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 94.6

BERNARD DE GORDON (ca. 1260 – ca. 1318) Bernardi Gordonii opus, Lilium medicinae inscriptum, de morborum propè omnium curatione, septem particulis distributum : vnà cum aliquot aliis eius libellis, quibus de nouo accesserunt libri, De phlebotomia, [De] conseruatione vitae humanae, [De] floribus diaetarum : omnia, quàm vnquam antehac, emendatiora [et] in nouum ordinem distributa Apud Guliel. Rouillium 1574 possibly 2nd or 3rd 1115, [39] p. 16 cm.

[Additional author: Fusch, Remaclus. Uniform Title: “Works. 1574”. Other title: “Lilium medicinae.” Edited by Joannes Eerssel. Cf. Dedicatory letter. Author also known as: Bernardus de Gordonio] Early biographical information is unknown, though it is possible that Bernard de Gordon was mentioned by Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales. The period from 1283 to 1308 is the best documented of his life. It corresponds to the years when Gordon held the office of the master studium of Montpellier, as he was master-regent from 1283 and probably the studium generale dean of the University of Montpellier after 1289. Despite Gordon’s great reputation in the medical field, his presence has left no trace in the statutes of the University. His own words give the impression of a man very determined, a bit cranky, and it is possible that he kept out of public life by engaging only in the University’s courses and medical practice. In addition, the shortage of posthumous contributions from colleagues can probably be explained by the tendency of an uncharitable Gordon to mock his contemporaries by thinly veiled personal attacks in his medical treatises. The lack of citations in the writings of his colleagues can also be explained by the fact that a work like his extension is rarely mentioned by professionals, more likely to cite the Canon of Avicenna or part of Hippocratic Corpus . The best testimony to his years of educational work and scientific investigation in Montpellier is the abundant production of manuscripts in theoretical and practical medicine. The death of Bernard Gordon is as mysterious as the rest of his life. Traditionally, it is proposed that he died in 1318 or 1320. According to Ulysse Chevalier in his directory of historical sources from the Middle Ages, Bernard Gordon died "around 1320". In fact, the only documents available can only say that his death was before 1330 . This enlarged edition contains the De phlebotomia, De conservatione vitae humane, & De floribus diaetarum, not found in Roville’s edition of 1550. The Lillium Medicina was first published in Venice in 1496. It is a “characteristic Arabist text-book of the practice of medicine” (Garrison, p. 164), arranged, as such works were in the Middle Ages, a capite ad calcem. The book is notable in containing the first description of a modern tress & the first mention of spectacles as oculus berellinus. Bernard de Gordon, though probably a Scot, taught at the great medical school of Montpellier from 1285-1307.

Cited references: NLM 16th cent. 543; Waller 977

John Martin M.D. Endowment