Articella

Articella ( the small art ) is a canon of medical writings, which originated at the Schola Medica Salernitana, the former Hospice of the monastery of Monte Cassino in the 11th century. The Articella developed over centuries as the basis of European medical education.

Origin and development

In the early Middle Ages in Baghdad polyglot scholar Hunayn ibn Ishaq doctor and created ( 808-873 ), which one knew better than Ioannitius in the West, a summary of the classical Greek medicine. Its synthesis is based on the Ars Medica ( Techne iatrike ) of the Greek physician Galen of Pergamum and naturalist ( 129-216 ), which in Europe as Isagoge Ioannitii ad Tegni Galieni ( Johannitus introduction Ad Artem Parvam Galen ) was known.

Constantine the African (1017-1083) created in the 11th century compendia ( textbooks and reference works ) for the medical school of Salerno, where he among other things, also the work of Galen from Arabic into Latin rendered. As several European universities further developed the formal medical training in the mid-13th century, the demand was always greater after comprehensive textbooks. Lecturers from the Schola Medica Salernitana influential usually made ​​do with it to get other writings in their copies of the Isagogue. These included the " prognostic " and the " Aphorisms " of Hippocrates, " Liber de Urinis " Theophilus, " Liber de Pulsibus " of Philaretus and many other classical works, which were usually also assigned to the Africans of Constantinople into Latin.

Bartholomew of Salerno was the first known author of an innovative collection of commentaries on the complete works of " Articella ", which continued to develop his students in several generations. 23 manuscripts for Articella have remained in versions of 12 get to the 14th century.

Among the medical students between the 13th and 16th centuries were several handwritten versions of the anthology in circulation. Between 1476 and 1534 also printed versions of Articella been published in several European cities.