Western Medicine for the Masters of Damascus: Benvenutus Grapheus's Experimenta

Abstract

Abstract This article examines a rediscovered work by the thirteenth-century physician Benvenutus Grapheus de Iherusalem. Surviving only in a late medieval German translation, it contains select recipes and medical procedures. The study of this compilation offers new insight into two important aspects of Benvenutus's life: It provides a more precise dating for his activities, and clarifies at least one facet of his connection to the Levant. An analysis of Benvenutus's sources, most notably the Antidotarium Nicolai but also the Circa instans, confirms the assumption of previous scholars that he had studied at the Salernitan school of medicine. This article also shows that, at least in this particular case, practitioners trained within the Arabic medical tradition did not view Western medicine as a priori inferior.