Compositions

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As Compositiones or Compositiones medicamentorum the extensive collection of medical recipes is the Scribonius Largus called in Latin.

Sources and structure of the text

Position of the compositions in the temporal context

The Scribonius Largus recipes were written around AD 43. They are thus temporally between the works ' De Medicina ' by Celsus, which are also written in Latin, and ' Naturalis historiae libri' by Pliny . There are numerous overlaps in the 3 books, possibly the same sources were used. Many of the plants mentioned by Scribonius Largus can also be found in Pliny, especially in Volume XX 'Medicine and Pharmacology' and in Celsus in Book V 'Pharmacology ...'.

However, Scribonius Largus presents himself as a practitioner who does not look for information in texts, but rather exchanges with his colleagues. He quotes over 20 doctors, including Zopyros mentioned elsewhere . Doctors often have Greek names, diseases and remedies are also often referred to in Greek or Latin with Greek synonyms.

Overall structure of the book

The book is divided into a greeting, 271 recipes and a short final note. The recipes are combined in groups of 1 to 5 recipes for a disease or a group of symptoms. In the first 162 recipes, human diseases are dealt with according to the 'from head to toe' scheme, beginning with headache and ending with foot gout. Recipes 163 to 178 contain agents against snake venom and antidotes, 179 to 200 against harmful substances, such as B. mushrooms or henbane. Then Scribonius Largus explains in a short intermediate section that the previous recipes have mainly dealt with the diaetetia and that the following are aimed at the surgeon . This is not entirely persistent, but many of the following recipes are related to wounds and pathological skin changes in the form of 'plasters (= emplastra)'.

Structure of the individual recipes

The prescriptions vary in length, mostly for one disease, sometimes for several. Every now and then several recipes are combined in one, or comments are inserted. However, the structure is very common: the disease to be treated, a list of ingredients with precise quantities, description of the preparation, information on administration. As an example composition LXXXVII:

"... for the cough associated with salivation: 1 ounce of saffron, 1/6 pound of myrrh, 1/4 pound of opium. The saffron is crushed and sifted thoroughly. ... pills the size of a pea are made; 3 or 4 each are served for the night "

content

The dedication

Scribonius Largus begins his recipe book with a greeting to the influential freedman Gaius Iulius Callistus . He is committed to the use of healing substances within the framework of medical art for the benefit of the patient. He appeals to Hippocrates and takes a position on a dispute about the well-known doctor Asklepiades that took place at the time .

Scribonius Largus in his recipes

Scribonius Largus confidently portrays himself as a successful practicing doctor in his compositions. He uses the verb form several times: 'probo' = I used it and found it good. In recipe CXVIII he even writes: 'hoc ego iam stercus per os eicientem, quod signum mortiferum est, sanavi ...' 'As a result, I ... who threw feces through the mouth - a sign of death - healed.' Scribonius Largus refers to about 20 doctor colleagues who are still living or who have already died, from whom he takes prescriptions, but with which he also contests dissenting views. He also frequently mentions relatives from the circle of the emperor Claudius (e.g. CCLXXI: 'acopum, quo fere Augusta et Antonia usae sunt ...') in order to illustrate his importance and proximity to the mighty people of the world.

The diseases and symptoms

There are around 150 reasons for using a composition. These are not diseases in the sense of the ICD, but symptoms, symptom complexes, more or less clear clinical pictures and harmful substances. An exact number is difficult to determine for reasons of delimitation: should one count 'cough', 'cough with sputum', 'old cough' separately? Is 'hard liver' to be considered together with 'liver suffering'? A number of obvious symptoms of physical impairment are treated, such as pain in various parts of the body, fever, the complex cough / runny nose / hoarseness, digestive problems with constipation, pain and diarrhea, poisoning, wounds. The symptoms are closely observed and described. It is z. For example, a prescription for urinary bladder swelling and pain (CXLVI) is accompanied by a prescription with the additional symptom 'difficult to pass urine' (CXLVII). The exact description in recipe CI: … whose chin muscles are so tightly tense with severe pain that they cannot open their mouth in any way: the Greeks call this disease τέτανος in today's clinical picture tetanus / tetanus. Scribonius Largus also goes into the definition of diseases of his time. He has compositions for people with spleen disease (lienosos) or stomach diseases (stomachios), but mostly the symptoms are described.

The remedies

According to Christian Schulze, the recipes are based on 242 plants, 36 minerals and 27 animal drugs; our own count, however, leads to 194 plants, 31 minerals and 39 animal drugs. A precise determination is hardly possible because the delimitation is difficult. So it is a matter of discretion whether the different types of wine are considered as different remedies, whether one equates adeps = fat with pinguis = fat. The following figures are therefore to be regarded as approximations. The most frequently cited substances are honey (50), oil (40), wine (50) and vinegar (40). They are often used for galenics and are excluded in the following.

Herbal substances

The herbal substances range from plants native to Italy, such as cabbage, fig and nettle, to plants from the eastern Mediterranean and Asia, such as galbanum (resin from an umbel-bearing plant from Syria), myrrh , zingiber = ginger . Many are mentioned only a few times. The most common plants or plant products mentioned are saffron (40), myrrh (40), opium (30) and pepper (30). Most of the plants are no longer used in medicine and naturopathy today. Opium, however, which can be equated with 'papaver somniferum' because of the extraction described in XXII, is used then as now against pain and persistent coughing (XC - XCIII). There are also other parallels: Aloe used in CXXXV to 'soften the intestines' is still regarded as a laxative.

Animal fabric

The fat (hen, pig, bull, ...) and milk (sheep, donkey, ...) of different animals are used, whether as a medicinal substance or for galenics remains unclear. Breast milk is also mentioned.

The animal substances are often close to folk medicine or magical ideas: testicles of the crocodile (XIV), skin of the star lizard (CLXIIII), brain of the night owl (XLIII).

Mineral substances

These substances mostly come from the field of metal processing, such as cadmia = gray smelting smoke, aes = ore, copper, bronze, aes ustum ( burnt copper ), flos aeris ( verdigris, i.e. copper acetate ). A complex of prescriptions for the care of wounds and hemostasis (CCI - CCXIX) is interesting. Various mineral substances are added to a viscous mass of vegetable pitch and wax. Usually 'spuma argentae' = silver foam (Argentum nitricum = silver nitrate is also now used as an antiseptic) and alum (an astringent).

Folk medicine and superstition

Latin folk medicine receives little attention in the work. The animal substances already mentioned in 2.4.2 are an exception. The recipe LXX is interesting: the ashes of swallow cubs against angina; the same can be found in Celsus (Book IV, 7). Astronomical references are mentioned in XVI (beginning of drug taking with the waning moon) and CCII (preparation when the dog star rises).

Special recipes

The vast majority of the recipes have the structure described in 1.3, always similar information on symptoms, remedies, preparation. Some recipes stand out and deserve special attention.

XVII: Nam sunt et… item ex iecinore gladiatoris iugulati particulam aliquam novies datam consumat. quaeque eiusdem generis sunt, extra medicinae professionem cadent, quamvis profuisse quibusdam visa sint . Then there are people ... who eat a piece of the liver of a slaughtered gladiator for nine days. Although this is outside the medical professionalism, you have occasionally seen that it works (own translation).

Scribonius Largus cannot completely distance itself from this dubious practice.

LXIIII: Scribonius Largus takes a position here on an apparently engaged controversy: should a kind of pressure bandage be applied in the event of a heavily bleeding injury to the outer limbs, or the affected limb should be tied off. Scribonius Largus takes the side of the pressure bandage and sees himself in harmony with Asklepiade's authority .

Theriac

The compositiones also contain two recipes for preparing theriak . According to Scribonius, the drug Theriak, which has had a tremendous history of reception up to modern times, works wonderfully as a “remedy against animal poison [...] with bites, stings and the breath of all snakes [...] Also with contusions that have occurred for any reason and with internal distortions Parts and the sides and chest pain. "

The recipe of the recipe mentioned by Scribonius theriace prima contains the following ingredients:

Vitis albae radicis pondo octo, trifolii acuti seminis, quod et ipsum in extremo aculeum habet, vel eisudem radicis p. III, panacis Ӿ p. IIII, terrae mali Ӿ p. V, roris marini radicis Ӿ p. IIII, laseris Ӿ p. IIII, zingiberis Ӿ p. IIII, rutae silvaticae Ӿ p. VI, cumini Thebaici Ӿ p. III, myrrhae Ӿ p. III, cumini Aethiopici Ӿ p. V, castorei Ӿ p. III, eryngii radicis Ӿ p. III, serpulli Ӿ p. III, ervi albi seminis moliti Ӿ p. XII. Chio vino consperguntur contusa ac trita; fiunt pastilli pondere Ӿ unius aut victoriati. Dantur ex vino mervo vetere vel ex mixto vel ex aqua: quae si non fuerint, per se commanducandus erit pastillus et devorandus .

8 pounds of bryony root, 3 pounds of the seed of the asphalt clover, which also has a spur at the end, or from the root of the same plant, 4 drachms of panacea, 5 drachms of potato, 4 drachms of rosemary root, 4 drachms of laser; 4 drachms of ginger, 6 drachms of wild rhombus, 3 drachms of Thebaic caraway, 3 drachms of myrrh, 5 drachms of Ethiopian caraway, 3 drachms of Bibergeil, 3 drachms of the root of the male faithful, 3 drachms of Quendel, 12 drachms of the ground seeds of the white Erve. The ingredients are crushed, grated and poured with Chios wine; pastilles of 1 or ½ drachm are made. They are served with pure, old wine or with mixed or with water; if this is not the case, the lozenges will have to be chewed and swallowed by oneself .

A clear assignment of the ancient plant names from the Theriac recipe of Scribonius Largus to the modern botanical species names is only partially possible without any doubt. It is therefore not always possible to say which ingredients Scribonius exactly meant. This can be illustrated with the help of selected individual components of the Theriak recipe:

Trifolium acutum

The trifolium acutum is a more specific term for the trifolium . It is usually assigned to the species Psoralea bituminosa L. , which is now called Bituminaria bituminosa (L.) CH Stirton in the botanical nomenclature . Also the asphaltion in Plin. nat. XXI 54 is equated with the species Psoralea bituminosa L. , although in Latin primary sources there is no evidence that the terms were used synonymously at the time.

Ros marinum

The ros marinum or ros marinus is by the editors of Compositiones usually -Expenditure with the botanical species Rosmarinus officinalis L. equated. Pliny, however, describes a plant called libanotis , which is also called rosmarinus . Libanotis itself as Cachrys libanotis L. identified. However, Pliny differentiates libanotis and rosmarinus into two subspecies: the species identifiable as Rosmarinus officinalis L. and a sterile species that can no longer be identified today. In this he agrees with Dioscorides ' libanotis , who also refers to the use of the name rosmarinus by the Romans, and which Pliny may have used as a source. In this context, a monosome assignment to Rosmarinus officinalis L. in Scribonius Largus is questionable. Meanwhile, Pliny reads the abilities of libanotis almost like a “miracle cure” for which the roots, bushes and seeds were used. Scribonius Largus also used the leaves and roots of the ros marinum . While a reference to Celtis australis L. or Stachys officinalis L. is rather unlikely due to the linguistic and medical-historical links, in addition to Cachrys libanotis L. and Rosmarinus officinalis L. , the now unknown species of "sterile libanotis " must be taken into account .

Zingiber

In the Latin edition of Sconocchia the plant is represented with zingiber , in the first edition Ruelles it was handed down as gingiber . However, this is only an alternative linguistic form. The zingiber is clearly of the kind Zingiber officinale Rosc. as well as the zingiber of Scribonius Largus' contemporary Pliny in Plin. nat. XII 28.

Cuminum Thebaicum

Pliny names cuminum silvestre and cuminum rusticum as synonyms of cuminum Thebaïcum and notes that this is a different species of the plant otherwise simply called cuminum . The commentary from the Tusculum Collection only classifies the Thebaic caraway as it cannot be further identified in the genus Umbelliferae-Apiacae . Perhaps, however, the “wild” caraway Pliny can be equated with Lagoecia cuminoides L. and can also be applied to Scribonius Largus' recipe collection. Scribonius Largus himself does little to clarify this, since he also uses a cuminum silvaticum in another place in addition to the cuminum Thebaicum . It is therefore unclear, if by cuminum silvaticum he really means the cuminum silvestre Pliny, whether cuminum Thebaicum and cuminum silvaticum are synonyms for him or whether they are different species. The analogy to Lagoecia cuminoides L. is therefore also questionable.

Cuminum ethiopicum

The cuminum aethiopicum also mentions Pliny, the qualities of different cumin - weighs varieties against each other, including those of cuminum aethiopicum . He also tells us that there was a lack of clarity among his contemporaries as to whether another plant called ami is merely similar to or equated with cuminum ethiopicum . In this he agrees with Dioscorides, whereby both Pliny and Dioscorides have a clear tendency to define ami as an independent species compared to the cuminum Aethiopicum . In any case, one must assume that there was a latent confusion between the two species, which Scribonius Largus could also have succumbed to. In the context of medical history, both the Ethiopian caraway and ami were recommended for the treatment of snake bites or bites of wild animals . An assignment of the cuminum Aethiopicum to the species Carum copticum (L.) Benth et Hook or Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague is possible, through the interpretation as ami an identification as Ammi maius L. is also conceivable.

According to another reading, the relevant passage does not mean cuminum Athiopicum , but cummi Aethiopicum . The commi Aethiopicum has multiple references to ancient authors. Scribonius Largus himself also mentions it as o livae Aethiopicae commi , which the Greeks called " elaeas Aethiopices dacryon ". Here Scribonius Largus quotes from the work of Dioscorides, whose “Ethiopian olive tree” can also be found in Pliny. This tree cannot be determined with certainty.

Text output

  • Johannes Ruellius (Ed.): Scribonii Largi de Compositionibus medicamentorum Liber unus, antehac nusquam excusus. Simon Silvius, Paris 1528 ( digitized biusanté ).
  • Johann Michael Bernhold (Ed.) Scribonii Largi Compositiones medicamentorum. Amandus König, Strasbourg 1786.
  • Scribonius Largus: Compositiones. Edidit Sergio Sconocchia, BSG BG Teubner Verlagsgesellschaft, Leipzig, 1983

literature

  • Christian Schulze: The pharmaceutical specialist literature in antiquity, Göttingen, 2002.
  • Pschyrembel (Medical Dictionary) : Clinical Dictionary, 259th edition, Berlin, 2002.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b William Schonack: Scribonius Largus, German translation
  2. ^ German translation in: Jutta Kollesch , Diethard Nickel : Antike Heilkunst. Selected texts from the medical writings of the Greeks and Romans. Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1979 (= Reclams Universal Library. Volume 771); 6th edition ibid. 1989, ISBN 3-379-00411-1 , pp. 45-49: Scribonius Largus, recipe compilations (from the foreword): Scribonius Largus to his friend Callistus.
  3. ↑ a b Scribonius Largus, Sergio Sconocchia
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Pschyrembel
  5. ^ Christian Schulze, Rome, Scribonius Largus
  6. ↑ a b c Georges
  7. ↑ Petrus Uffenbach (ed.): Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbaei herb book […]. (translated into German by Johannes Danzius), Frankfurt am Main (with Johann Bringern) 1610, p. 385 f.
  8. ↑ Dieter Lehmann: Two medical prescription books of the 15th century from the Upper Rhine. Part I: Text and Glossary. Horst Wellm, Pattensen / Han. 1985, now at Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg (= Würzburg medical-historical research , 34), ISBN 3-921456-63-0 , p. 176.
  9. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 165 f.
  10. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 165. Schonack 1913, accessed on 22 December 2017 .
  11. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 164.
  12. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 165, Sconocchia 1983.
  13. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 165. Schonack 1913, accessed on 22 December 2017 .
  14. ↑ Scribonius Largus: mediche Ricette . Ed .: Loredana Mantovanelli. SARGON Editrice e Libreria, Padova 2012, ISBN 978-88-95672-27-4 , elenco delle piante e dei loro derivati, p. CXXVI , sv Trifolium acutum .
  15. ^ A b Jacques André: Les noms de plantes dans la Rome antique . Soc. d'Ed. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-251-32856-4 , pp. 264 , sv trifolium .
  16. ^ J. McNeill, E. Ann Odell, Laurie L. Consaul, Deborah S. Katz: American code and later lectotypifications of Linnaean generic names dating from 1753. A case study of discrepancies . In: Taxon . tape 36 , no. 2 . Bureau, Vienna 1987, p. 350-401 , here p. 381 , doi : 10.2307 / 1221430 , JSTOR : 1221430 .
  17. ^ Plinius Secundus, Gaius: Naturkunde . Ed .: Roderich König. 2., ext. and edit Edition volume 21/22 . Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-7608-1704-1 , explanations to XXI 54, p. 268 .
  18. ↑ Scribonius Largus: The Receptbuch of Scribonius Largus . Ed .: Felix Rinne. Halle 1896, the most important medicines mentioned in Scribonius Largus, p. 70 , sv Rosmarini folia .
  19. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 165 (Mantovanelli 2012), footnote 295.
  20. ↑ Plin. nat. XIX 187.
  21. ^ Plinius Secundus, Gaius: Naturkunde . Ed .: Roderich König. tape 19 . Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-7608-1599-5 , explanations on XIX 187, p. 172 f .
  22. ^ A b c Jacques André: Les noms de plantes dans la Rome antique . Soc. d'Ed. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-251-32856-4 , pp. 219 , sv ros marinum .
  23. ↑ Plin. nat. XXIV 99.
  24. ^ Plinius Secundus, Gaius: Naturkunde . Ed .: Roderich König. tape 24 . Munich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-1604-5 , explanations, p. 153 , XXIV 99 .
  25. ↑ Diosk. mat. med. III 79 (87).
  26. ↑ Plin. nat. XXIV 99.
  27. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 268.
  28. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 165.
  29. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 165 (Ruelle 1528), quoted from: Scrib. Larg. 165 (Sconocchia 1983), footnote to line 7.
  30. ^ Jacques André: Les noms de plantes dans la Rome antique . Soc. d'Ed. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-251-32856-4 , pp. 110 and p. 279 , sv gingiber and sv zingiber .
  31. ^ Plinius Secundus, Gaius: Naturkunde . Ed .: Roderich König. tape 12/13 . Munich 1977, ISBN 3-7765-2144-9 , explanations to XII 28, p. 202 .
  32. ↑ Plin. nat. XIX 161.
  33. ^ Plinius Secundus, Gaius: Naturkunde . Ed .: Roderich König. tape 19 . Zurich 1996, explanations to XIX 161, p. 164 .
  34. ^ Jacques André: Les noms de plantes dans la Rome antique . Soc. d'Ed. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-251-32856-4 , pp. 81 , sv cuminum .
  35. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 119.
  36. ↑ Plin. nat. XIX 161.
  37. ↑ Plin. nat. XX 163.
  38. ↑ Diosk. mat. med. III 63 (70).
  39. ↑ Plin. nat. XX 163 and Diosk. mat. med. III 61 (68).
  40. ^ Plinius Secundus, Gaius: Naturkunde . Ed .: Roderich König. tape 20 . Munich 1979, explanations to XX 163, p. 253 .
  41. ^ Jacques André: Les noms de plantes dans la Rome antique . Soc. d'Ed. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-251-32856-4 , pp. 81 , sv cuminum .
  42. ^ Jacques André: Les noms de plantes dans la Rome antique . Soc. d'Ed. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-251-32856-4 , pp. 14 , sv ami .
  43. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 165 (Codex Toletanus Capit. 98, 12). Quoted from: Scrib. Larg. 165 (Sconocchia 1983), footnote to lines 8 and 9.
  44. ↑ Scrib. Larg. 252.
  45. ↑ Diosk. mat. med. I 141.
  46. ↑ Plin. nat. XII 77 and XXIII 72.
  47. ↑ Diosk. mat. med. I 141 (Berendes 1902), note p. 125 and Plin. nat. XXIII 72 (König 1993), explanations p. 130.