Byzantinisches Archiv – Series Medica
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Edited by:
Albrecht Berger
Byzantinisches Archiv – Series Medica is dedicated to the new and rapidly growing field of research into Byzantine medical literature of professional use. It considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research on Byzantine medicine based on solid philological and medical-historical foundations. Its aim is to publish critical editions, source-based analyses of Byzantine medical literature, and conference volumes. Each volume is written and edited by leading scholars in the field. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.
Editors in Chief: Albrecht Berger and Isabel Grimm-Stadelmann (Munich)
Editorial Board: Robert Alessi (Paris), Klaus-Dietrich Fischer (Mainz), Anna Maria Ieraci Bio (Neapel), Frederick Lauritzen (Venedig), Rosa Maria Piccione (Turin), Peter Schreiner (Köln/München), Ilias Valiakos (Larissa)
Topics
Byzantine medicine and charitable foundations are essential parts of the culture of Constantinople. From the establishment of the new roman capital in 330 till its fall in 1453 the study and practice of medicine was often associated with charitable institutions (such as euageis oikoi) which may have inspired similar foundations in Venice (le Scuole Grandi) whose charitable and sometimes medical aspects are comparable to the byzantine ones. Each contributor addresses these questions and together they allow one to form an idea of how medicine was studied and often practiced in charitable foundations. The study of medicine in all its aspects is a central concern of byzantine culture. Each byzantine citizen was confronted with medicine during his or her life and would have known the charitable foundations, not only for their social function, but also as buildings visible on a daily basis.
How were early modern doctors supposed to include ancient medical authorities like Hippocrates and Galen in their own work? The modern history of medicine had to ask itself this question in the nineteenth century as it wrangled with philology for the right to edit medical texts. This work reveals how modern doctors read "the ancients": as medicine’s ancestors, as the authors of founding texts, as colleagues.
Recipe collections are considered significant representatives of Byzantine medical literature. They were therapeutic and pharmacological specialist texts conceptualized for everyday problems and self-treatment. This critical edition presents the Anthologium Iatrosophicum of Cod. XIII C 3 held at the Regional Library of Palermo and makes an important contribution to defining and classifying Byzantine recipe literature in cultural history.
The reception of Greco-Egyptian iatromagic in Byzantine medical practice literature is a culturo-historical phenomenon with multiple meanings. The rational interpretation of unconventional therapeutic concepts stands at the threshold of a transformation thanks to new considerations concerning medical ethics and patient-focused care.
