Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 1 (of 2)Wootton, A. C.
History
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Wootton, A. C.
Pharmacy -- History
The pharmaceutical knowledge to which the famous school attained may
be judged by the reputation which attended the Antidotary of Nicolas
Prepositus, who was director of the school in the first half of the
twelfth century. In this Antidotary are found the absurd formulas
pretending to have been invented or used by the Apostle Paul and
others. “Sal Sacerdotale quo utebantur sacerdotales tempore Heliae
prophetae” is among these. In the course of the next century or
two medical students from England, Germany, Italy, and France went
to Cordova, Toledo, and Seville, and there wrote translations of
the medical works used in those schools. These translations by the
end of the thirteenth century were so universally accepted as to
eclipse Salerno, which from then began to decline in fame, Bologna,
Montpellier, Padua, and Leyden gradually partitioning among themselves
its old reputation. But the medical school of Salerno actually existed
until 1811, when it was dissolved by a decree of Napoleon I.
As evidence of the monopoly of Avicenna in the medical schools of
Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and doubtless for
a long period previously, the following from the preface to a Latin
translation of the works of Paulus Egineta is quoted by Leclerc:--
Avicenna, who is regarded as the Prince and most excellent of
all physicians, is read and expounded in all the schools; and
the ninth book of Rhazes, physician to the Caliph Almansor,
is similarly read and commented on. These are believed to
teach the whole art of healing. A few later writers, such
as Betruchius, Gatinaria, Guaynerius, and Valescus, are
occasionally cited, and now and then Hippocrates, Galen,
and Dioscorides are quoted, but all the other Greek writers
are unknown. The Latin translations of a few of the books
of Galen and Hippocrates which are in use are very corrupt
and barbarous, and are only admitted at the pleasure of the
Arabian Princes, and this favour is but rarely conceded.
The most notable event in the history of pharmacy after the earlier
Crusades was an edict regulating the practice of both medicine and
pharmacy issued by Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of
Sicily. This monarch, probably the ablest ruler in the Middle Ages, who
died in 1250, had great esteem for Arab learning. Mohammedans and Jews
were encouraged to come to Naples during his reign, and he facilitated
by all means in his power the introduction of such innovations as had
been acquired from Cordova and Bagdad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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