Studies in ancient medicine最新文献

Calcidius is the only exegete of Plato's Timaeus whose commentary on this Greek dialogue concerned with eyesight has not been lost. This document is all the more valuable since the Latin version is the only testimony regarding theories of and treatments for eye diseases--two domains in which, as can be deduced from the terms used, the commentator is dependent on Greek. The part of the commentary about eyesight is also worthy of interest because it is the only one that openly attacks the iuniores with an overtly hostile tone. We propose to study Calcidius' exegesis of Plato's Timaeus, focusing on Calcidius' portrayal of Greek ophthalmological theories and practices and his representation of a group of people he openly attacks.

Grafting is an important concept in the study of Pliny the Elder, who is a compiler of written sources. We intend to examine how this grafting works in Pliny's discussion of analgesic and narcotic plants, especially the most famous: opium poppy, henbane, mandrake, and hound's berry. We will study Pliny's use of Greek sources and ask how he took up his predecessors' works while integrating the changes that took place during the centuries in the diagnosis and treatment of pain. This cultural graft remains elusive because we do not have access to all of Pliny's Greek sources. When Pliny speaks about these plants, he sometimes copies out information, adding or removing details, and occasionally makes significant mistakes. The graft was particularly difficult in this case because these analgesic plants were considered so special and poisonous that they were sometimes rejected or even condemned. Nevertheless, we can say that this cultural graft succeeded, despite some obstacles, because Pliny assimilated and adapted these old Greek materials to his own time, society, and project.

1. Far fewer Latin medical papyri, whether paraliterary, documentary or magical, have survived compared to Greek medical papyri, but they nonetheless provide interesting information about medical practices in the Graeco-Roman world, the relationship between Greek and Latin medical languages, and the choices made to use one rather than the other, a subject that has never been exhaustively studied. As part of the update undertaken by CEDOPAL since 2008 of the Corpus papyrorum Latinarum, published fifty years ago by the late Robert Cavenaile, we have inventoried Latin papyri containing medical references, classifying them by type or nature of content, provenance, form, layout, and writing. We finally analyse their content and what it reveals about the reception of Greek medicine by Latin or Latin-speaking writers. 2. The second section presents the only iatromagical papyrus in Latin known at the present time, P. Held. inv. lat. 5 (Suppl. Mag. 1.36, ca. fifth/sixth centuries, Fustat [?]), and compares its content with that of the Greek iatromagical papyri (dating from the first century B.C. to the seventh century A.D.) on one hand, and on the other hand with iatromagical formulae in Latin that have been preserved on metal leaves coming from Italy, Hungary, France, and England.

The reading of Seneca's works is of the greatest interest for the history of ancient medicine since this Stoic philosopher makes extensive use of medical comparisons and references with regard to ethics and epistemology. Seneca should therefore be considered as an indirect but important witness to the tracing of medical doxography. The study of his Problems in Nature (Naturales Quaestiones), as they are based on a pneumatical etiological system, shows the complexity of the relationship between medical and philosophical schools. It also brings new light on some of the treatises from the Hippocratic Corpus.

Collyrium-stamps are usually parallelepipedic stones that might have been used in the Roman world, between the second part of the first century and the fourth century A.D., to stamp eye medicine. On their four narrow sides, those seals contain instructions engraved in retrograde characters, of varying drawing quality, sometimes in Greek, mostly in Latin and in an abbreviated form. These markings represent some sort of medical prescriptions since they contain one or more of the following information: a personal name in the genitive case, a collyrium name, therapeutic instructions, and a method of administration. Like personal names and therapeutic instructions, collyrium names suggest that Roman eye medicine was inscribed in the Greek medical tradition. A comparison between the collyrium names engraved on the seals unearthed in Switzerland and the collyrium names known through our reading the Greek medical texts allows for an estimation of the influence of Greek ophthalmology on Roman eye medicine.