Lorsch Pharmacopoeia

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Table of contents (sheet 9r)

The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia is an extensive medical manuscript from the time of Charlemagne , probably created around 785. It is the oldest surviving book on monastery medicine from the early Western Middle Ages and the oldest surviving medical book in Germany. The pharmacopoeia was written in Latin under the aegis of Benedictine in the Lorsch monastery (today Bergstrasse district , Hesse ), probably under Richbod , the abbot of the imperial abbey. It has been in Bamberg for around 1000 years and is now kept in the Bamberg State Library (signature: Msc.Med.1 ; old signature: L.III.8 ). Since June 2013, the part of the Lorsch pharmacopoeia for UNESCO - World Soundtrack Awards .

Origin and history

The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia - so named for the first time by the Würzburg medical historian Gundolf Keil - was formerly also known as Codex Bamberginsis medicinalis 1 and was written by several hands in the Benedictine monastery of Lorsch. This could be proven by the palaeographer Bernhard Bischoff due to the Carolingian minuscule script in the older Lorsch style .

However, the dating is controversial. It fluctuates between the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 9th century . Bernhard Bischoff first dated the manuscript to “between 781 and 783” and “only a little over 800”, and later to “IX. Century beginning ”. Gundolf Keil initially dated it to the year 795, later went back to 792, then back to 790 and finally spoke out in favor of the time “around 788”. Klaus-Dietrich Fischer , also a medical historian, contradicted Keil's arguments and again referred to Bischoff for the chronological classification.

Recipe supplements and Old High German notes testify to continued use in the 9th and 10th centuries .

The manuscript contains on a half-empty page (fol. 42v) the only known (partial) directory of an imperial library from the early Middle Ages, written down by Leo von Vercelli (d. 1026), the teacher and confidante of Emperor Otto III. This list of books also enables the history of the Lorsch Pharmacopoeia to be largely reconstructed: After the early death of Emperor Otto III. In 1002 the manuscript came into the possession of his successor, Emperor Heinrich II. , who donated it to the cathedral library of the diocese of Bamberg , which he founded in 1007 . From there, in the course of secularization in 1803 , it came to the Bamberg Electoral Library, today's Bamberg State Library, where it is kept under the signature Msc.Med.1.

The manuscript, which was first described in 1831 and initially known only to a few experts from 1863, was extensively examined scientifically in the 1980s by the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Würzburg . The results of the investigations were presented in 1989 at a symposium in Lorsch, in the same year a two-volume edition with a reproduction of the manuscript and a translation was published. A popular scientific introduction to the Codex was also published in 1989, and a dissertation with text, translation and technical glossary in 1992.

Content, sources and structure

The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia comprises 75 veal parchment sheets in the format 32 × 22.5 cm, which are densely described in one column with 32 to 33 lines. The medical-pharmaceutical manuscript proves to be a systematically laid out compendium, designed as a reference work for the practical everyday work of a monastery doctor as well as an introductory textbook . The main part (from sheet 17) is a collection of 482 recipes from the Greco - Roman tradition. The ingredients, the manufacture and the application of the medicinal products are described . This collection of prescriptions , containing both short and full prescriptions (pharmacographic), is embedded in treatises on the history of medicine and medical ethics .

The Physica Plinii (6th / 7th centuries), Byzantine medicine and the writings of the so-called Aurelius-Escolapius ( De acutis passionibus by Aurelius, or Caelius Aurelianus , and De acutis et chronicis morbis from Aesculapius or the same.). Indirectly (via Byzantine Medicine) the Codex also included works by Dioscurides ( De Materia medica , a pharmacographic herbarium ) and Galen , as well as (via Physica Plinii ) the Medicina Plinii , which arose in the 4th century .

The individual text segments:

Preface: Justification of medicine (Defensio artis medicinae)

In the foreword, the healing art is defended against the reservations of well-known Christians , who saw in it an impermissible interference with the divine plan of salvation . In contrast, the argumentation of this justification aims at defining medical action as a commandment of Christian love for one's neighbor .

Carmen (Versus seu Carmina)

This segment is a medical order in verse form . The demand is made that the art of healing must be accessible not only to the rich, but also to the poor. It is also recommended to use not only the expensive herbs from the Orient , but also effective local herbs to keep costs down.

Introduction to Medicine (Initia medicinae)

This segment covers the history of medicine , anatomy and the Hippocratic oath .

The questions of Aristotle (Problemata Aristotelis)

Pseudo-Aristotelian collection of healing tasks in question and answer form.

Representatives of small literary forms close to astrological literature

Contains “ Critical Days” (Dies incerti ) and “Egyptian Days” (Dies aegyptiaci).

Dietary texts

A monthly potion ( hippocras ), monthly rules and a four-season potion are discussed .

Exchange list (Antemballomena sive De succedaneis)

Alternatives for many medicinal drugs are given in fragments .

Table of contents (Conspectus curationum capitulationibus V comprehensorum)

An almost complete list of all the recipes contained in the work.

Graeco-Latin glossary (Hermeneumata sive Glossarium pigmentorum vel herbarum)

A list of medicinal drugs with Greek and Latin synonyms.

mass and weight

The units of measure and weight used in the recipes are described here.

Recipe collection (Curationes capitulationibus V comprehensae)

Divided into five books, there are a total of 482 recipes, which vary greatly in complexity. Medicinal forms such as potions , latwerge , pills , plasters , poultices , suppositories , ointments and oils are treated in particular . Some sections deal with the extraction or manufacture of medicinal substances such as sulfur and verdigris , with the origin of spices such as pepper and ginger or with the manufacture and storage of medicinal products in general.

The recipes include some highly innovative procedures for the time, such as the use of cardiac glycosides to stabilize the circulation , the psychiatric use of St. John's wort or an antibiotic based on sheep dung, honey and cheese for the treatment of deep wounds and ulcers .

The books of the recipe collection:

  • 1st book: mainly based on Galen scientific tradition
  • 2. Book: contains excerpts from the Physica Plinii, arranged from head to toe, as well as various tables and short treatises
  • 3rd book: short recipes partly arranged according to healing indications and inserted antidotes
  • 4th book: especially short and full recipes concerning the purge of bad juices as well as pharmaceutical-pharmacognostic treatises partly based on Dioskurides
  • 5th book: systematic text unit consisting of four sections (antidotes, Purgier recipes, ointment recipes, medicinal oils)

Anthimus letter (De observatione ciborum epistula ad Theodericum regem Francorum)

Letter from the doctor Anthimus to King Theuderic I , in which healthy eating is the subject of discussion.

Scientific importance

For the first time, the Lorsch Pharmacopoeia combines knowledge of ancient medicine from the Greco-Roman tradition with Christian beliefs and paved the way for early medieval monastic medicine to become part of the European scientific canon.

The entire work can be seen as evidence of a re-evaluation of medicine in the course of the Carolingian educational reform around 800. The preface offers a justification for the reservations of those Christians who saw the healing art as an inadmissible interference with the divine plan of salvation. Defense derives from the Bible and theological writings the right and at the same time the duty to help the sick with the knowledge and means given by God, as an act of Christian love for one's neighbor. These explanations offer the most extensive and earliest argumentative text testimony to the reception of ancient traditions in the course of the Carolingian educational reform: They document the first post-ancient impetus for a transformation process that resulted in the acceptance of the ancient legacy under Christian auspices. In this way, the course was set especially for medicine, which continues to have an effect today in the connection of secular science and an ethic of helping people. The Bamberg signature also stands for this innovation, which came from monasticism .

See also

Editions of works and translations

  • Gundolf Keil (Ed.): The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia. ; Volume 1: Facsimile of the manuscript Msc. Med. 1 of the Bamberg State Library. Volume 2: Translation […] by Ulrich Stoll and Gundolf Keil with the assistance of Albert Ohlmeyer. Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8047-1078-6 .
  • Ulrich Stoll: The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia'. A medical compendium of the 8th century (Codex Bambergensis medicinalis 1). Text, translation and technical glossary. (Philosophical dissertation Würzburg 1989) Stuttgart: Steiner, 1992 (= Sudhoffs Archive , Supplement 28). Google Books Also review by Alf Önnerfors in: Gnomon. Critical journal for all of classical antiquity 66 (1994), pp. 688-695.

literature

  • Karl Sudhoff: A defense of medicine from the times of 'monk medicine' . In: Archive for the History of Medicine 7 (1913), Issue 4, pp. 223-237.
  • Gundolf Keil, Albert Ohlmeyer: 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia'. In: Author's Lexicon . 2nd Edition. Volume 11, 2004, Col. 926-930.
  • Bernhard Bischoff: The Lorsch Abbey as reflected in its manuscripts. Lorsch: Verlag Laurissa, 2nd expanded edition, 1989, pp. 31–33, 67 and 102.
  • Adelheid Platte, Karlheinz Platte (ed.): The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia'. Monastery medicine in the Carolingian era: Selected texts and contributions. Edited on behalf of the city of Lorsch, Laurissa, Lorsch 1989; 2nd edition, ibid. 1990
  • Ulrich Stoll / Gundolf Keil / Ria Jansen-Sieben: Letter from the illustrious Anthimus to Theodoric, King of the Franks. Extract from the 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia'. Translation of the manuscript Msc.Med.1 of the Bamberg State Library. Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1989.
  • Gundolf Keil, Paul Schnitzer (ed.): The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia' and early medieval medicine. Negotiations of the medical history symposium in September 1989 in Lorsch. Lorsch: Verlag Laurissa, 1991 (= history sheets for the Bergstrasse district. Special volume 12).
  • Alf Önnerfors: Linguistic remarks on the so-called 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia'. In: Latin vulgaire - latin tardif III. Actes du IIIème Colloque international sur le Latin vulgaire et tardif. Edited by Maria Iliescu and Werner Marxgut. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1992, pp. 255-281.
  • Silke Körlings-König: The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia'. Comparative study of a pharmacopoeia from the 8th century. Dissertation from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, 1992.
  • Hermann Schefers: Iste est laudabilis ordo. A contribution to the importance of medicine at the court of Charlemagne and to the problem of the Carolingian 'court school'. In: Würzburger medical historical reports 11 (1993), pp. 175–203, in particular pp. 191–199 ( The 'Lorscher Pharmacopoeia' )
  • Bernhard Bischoff: Catalog of the mainland manuscripts of the ninth century (with the exception of the wisigothic). Part 1: Aachen - Lambach. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998, p. 50, no.223.
  • Rolf Bergmann / Stefanie Stricker: Catalog of the Old High German and Old Saxon gloss manuscripts. Volume 1, Berlin / New York: de Gruyter, 2005, pp. 172–174.
  • Rolf Bergmann: Lorsch gloss manuscripts. In: Rolf Bergmann / Stefanie Stricker (eds.): The Old High German and Old Saxon Glossography. A manual. Volume 2, Berlin / New York: de Gruyter, 2009, pp. 1301–1305, here p. 1302.
  • Klaus-Dietrich Fischer: The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia' in conflict of opinions. In: Medizinhistorisches Journal 45 (2010), pp. 165–188 (PDF; 511 kB).
  • Franz Daxecker : Eye diseases in the Lorsch pharmacopoeia. In: Communications of the Julius Hirschberg Society for the history of ophthalmology. Edited by Frank Krogmann. Volume 16, Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2014, pp. 321–335.
  • Werner Taegert: Excellent handwriting from the emperor's hand. The “Lorsch Pharmacopoeia” of the Bamberg State Library in the UNESCO “Memory of the World” register. In: Bibliotheksforum Bayern [NF] 9 (2015), No. 1, pp. 39–43 (PDF; 846 kB).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Stoll: The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia'. In: Gundolf Keil, Paul Schnitzer (ed.): The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia' and early medieval medicine. Negotiations of the medical history symposium in September 1989 in Lorsch. Laurissa, Lorsch 1991 (= history sheets for the Bergstrasse district. Special volume 12), pp. 29–59 (a work report) and pp. 61–80 (an overview of the origin, content and claims of the oldest pharmacopoeia of German provenance).
  2. ↑ Gundolf Keil: 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia'. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 865 f.
  3. ^ German UNESCO Commission eV: Lorsch Pharmacopoeia .
  4. ^ UNESCO: Lorsch Pharmacopoeia (The Bamberg State Library, Msc.Med.1) .
  5. ↑ Hermann Schefers (1993), p. 191 f.
  6. ↑ Bernhard Bischoff: The Lorsch Abbey as reflected in its manuscripts. Lorsch: Verlag Laurissa, 2nd expanded edition, 1989, pp. 31–33, 67 and 102, here pp. 31–33.
  7. ↑ Bernhard Bischoff: The Lorsch Abbey as reflected in its manuscripts. Lorsch: Verlag Laurissa, 2nd expanded edition, 1989, pp. 31–33, 67 and 102, here p. 31.
  8. ↑ Bernhard Bischoff: Catalog of the mainland manuscripts of the ninth century (with the exception of the wisigoth). Part 1: Aachen - Lambach. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998, p. 50, no.223.
  9. ↑ An overview of evidence from Klaus-Dietrich Fischer: The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia' in the conflict of opinions. In: Medizinhistorisches Journal 45 (2010), pp. 165–188, here p. 171 (PDF; 511 kB).
  10. ↑ Klaus-Dietrich Fischer: The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia' in the conflict of opinions. In: Medizinhistorisches Journal 45 (2010), pp. 165–188, here pp. 170–173 (PDF; 511 kB).
  11. ↑ Gundolf Keil: The "Lorsch Pharmacopoeia". Notes on the early history of cost containment in the pharmaceutical sector. In: Archives for Hessian History and Archeology, New Series 49, 1991, pp. 343–360, here: p. 345.
  12. ↑ Gundolf Keil: Introduction. In: Gundolf Keil (ed.): The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia. (Manuscript Msc. Med. 1 of the Bamberg State Library); Volume 2: Translation by Ulrich Stoll and Gundolf Keil with the assistance of former abbot Albert Ohlmeyer . Scientific publishing company, Stuttgart 1989, p. 9 f.
  13. ↑ Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. 1998, pp. 91 and 219.
  14. ^ Daniël de Moulin: De heelkunde in de vroege middeleeuwen. Medical dissertation Nijmegen, EJ Brill, Leiden 1964, pp. 37-40.
  15. ↑ Ulrich Stoll: The 'Lorsch Pharmacopoeia'. A medical compendium of the 8th century (Codex Bambergensis medicinalis 1). Text, translation and technical glossary. 1992, p. 22 .; and Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. 1998, p. 235.
  16. ^ Research group monastery medicine: First works of monastery medicine .
  17. ↑ Research group monastery medicine: Lorsch Pharmacopoeia is a world heritage .
  18. ↑ Martin Paetsch: Ointment made from sheep dung. With the help of the pharmaceutical industry, scientists from Würzburg sift through medieval herbal books. The researchers hope for new drugs from the monastery garden. In: Der Spiegel , issue 38/2000, pp. 174, 176 (PDF; 195 kB).
  19. ↑ Samiha Shafy: God-fearing poisoners. Würzburg researchers test the remedies of medieval monasteries: some recipes are amazingly effective. In: Der Spiegel, edition 12/2010, pp. 172–173 (PDF; 660 kB).
  20. ↑ Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. (Mathematical and natural scientific dissertation Würzburg 1994) Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 65). ISBN 3-8260-1667-X , pp. 85-93.