Scribonius Largus

Scribonius Largus was a Roman physician of the empirical- skeptical school in the 1st century AD in the time of Claudius.

Life

About the origin of the Scribonius are no secure messaging. His research according to the older view clumsy acting Latin sometimes had suggested the assumption that it was a Greek slave who wrote first Greek and then translated into Latin. The negative linguistic assessment was revised, however, increasingly in recent years.

It is believed that he used Celsus as a source, but it is questionable whether it can be considered as his pupil. He stood in relation to the court of Claudius, whom he referred to several times as a deus noster Caesar, and he on his expedition to Britain (43 AD) accompanied ( comp. 163). Secured is also his relationship with Gaius Julius Callistus, to whom he dedicated his Compositiones. Suspected has one, moreover, that he was also the personal physician to Claudius or Valeria Messalina.

Work

Of his works, only the Compositiones are obtained, a compilation of 271 recipes, arranged ( from head to foot ) content according to the known since Aristotle's scheme a capite ad calcem, and emerged 44-48 AD, that is, in the time between the return of Claudius from Britain and the death of more than alive mentioned Messalina ( comp. 60). The book, which was especially used by the younger Andromachus and the pharmacologist Asclepiades, of Marcellus Empiricus, is based on Greek sources: Heraclides of Tarentum and his school.

The text of the Compositiones was until very recently only by the Editio princeps by Jean Ruel (1528 ) after a since -lost manuscript by secondary and tradition especially in Marcellus Empiricus known to the transcribed some 90 chapters around 400 AD. 1983 Innocenzo Mazzini published the discovery of a tradition of Marcellus related medieval epitome of Chapter 97-107 and 214 in a manuscript of the ninth century ( Bodmerianus 84 C, formerly Phillipps 386), and in 1974 succeeded Sergio Sconocchia in a manuscript from the beginning of the 16. century ( Toletanus Capit. 98.2 ) the discovery of Scriboniustextes, to that of the Editio princeps is near. Decisive is now the critical issue Sconocchias 1983, but are in the preparation of the text, in particular the assessment of the tradition of Marcellus, still some uncertainties remained.

Others

Scribonius Largus offers in the prologue of Compositiones the oldest testimony in the tradition of the Hippocratic oath.

Edition and concordance

• Sergio Sconocchia (ed.): Scribonii Largi Compositiones. Teubner, Leipzig 1983
• Sergio Sconocchia (ed.): Concordantiae Scribonianae. Olms- Weidmann, Hildesheim [ ua] 1988 ( = Alpha - Omega, Series A, 92), ISBN 3- 487-09116 -X
• Scribonii Largi de compositione medicamentorum liber / iampridem Io. Ruellii opera e tenebris erutus & a situ vindicatus. - Basileae. Cratandrus, 1529 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf