Paul of Aegina

A little-known thirteenth-century manuscript preserved in Damascus contains by far the largest Syriac medical work that has survived till today. Despite the missing beginning , a preliminary study of the text allows us to argue that it is the medical handbook (entitled Kunnāšā) of Īšōʿ bar ʿAlī, a ninth-century physician and student of Ḥunayn b. Isḥāq. The seven books of the handbook appear to follow the model of Paul of Aegina's Pragmateia both in composition and content. The actual significance of the handbook in the history of Syriac and Arabic medicine is yet to be assessed, but there can be no doubt that it will be a pivotal source that illustrates the development of Syriac medicine during a period of four centuries at the moment when it was being translated to lay the foundations of the nascent medical tradition in Arabic.

Where medical texts are concerned, Oribasius, active in the second half of the 4th century AD, presents a remarkable instance of abbreviating redactions: His chief source, Galen, is often extant and available for comparison, and sometimes we can observe Oribasius’s technique in three of his medical works with similar content, but with different aims and length, i.e. the Collectiones medicae, the Synopsis, and the Euporista. Furthermore, the same material may be presented again in the later  medical encyclopedias written by Aetius (6th century) and Paul of Aegina (7th century). This may at times be an important help for correcting corruptions that have occurred during transmission, especially as most of our Greek mss. come from the later middle ages. Likewise of help are the Latin versions of Oribasius’ shorter works, syn. and eup. The samples chosen for the present study are Oribasius’ chapters on air, on leeches, and on cupping.

The main aim of this paper is to identify the two species of conifers that in Ancient Greece were called πίτυς and πεύκη, which occur in the text of Epitomae medicinae libri septem by Paul of Aegina. Identification, or taxonomical classification as a Botanist would say, of those two species of conifers for a very long time has been causing problems both to the Philologists and Botanists interested in Byzatine medicinal literature. In my paper, I will focus on what Paul of Aegina said about the chemical or medicinal qualities of those two species, how and when they should be used as a remedy, but most of all are the pieces of information given by the author useful in the taxonomic classification and final identification of those two plants.

Where medical texts are concerned, Oribasius, active in the second half of the 4th century AD, presents a remarkable instance of abbreviating redactions: His chief source, Galen, is often extant and available for comparison, and sometimes we can observe Oribasius’s technique in three of his medical works with similar content, but with different aims and length, i.e. the Collectiones medicae, the Synopsis, and the Euporista. Furthermore, the same material may be presented again in the later medical encyclopedias written by Aetius (6th century) and Paul of Aegina (7th century). This may at times be an important help for correcting corruptions that have occurred during transmission, especially as most of our Greek mss. come from the later middle ages. Likewise of help are the Latin versions of Oribasius’ shorter works, syn. and eup. The samples chosen for the present study are Oribasius’ chapters on air, on leeches, and on cupping.