Pelagonius

Pelagonius Saloninus was a 4th century Roman veterinarian . He wrote an Ars veterinaria , the first traditional equine medicine written in Latin. With the exception of a major gap that resulted from the loss of the most important handwriting, this font has been preserved, but only in a version that was edited by a later editor, which led to deterioration. In this version the work consists almost exclusively of recipes and is written in letter form; each chapter is addressed to a specific recipient and deals with a single disease. Pelagonius drew his knowledge from both Latin and Greek sources, including Columella ; it is unclear whether he also used his own experience. He confessed to the pagan religion, especially the sun cult . The remedies that he recommended also include spells , as is customary in ancient medicine , but recent research has warned against overemphasizing this aspect as it leads to a misjudgment.

The writing of Pelagonius was used by Marcellus Empiricus and Vegetius and translated into Greek.

expenditure

• Klaus-Dietrich Fischer (Ed.): Pelagonii Ars veterinaria . Teubner, Leipzig 1980. Review in Med Hist. 1982 January; 26 (1): 108 PMC 1139130 (free full text).
• Maximilian Ihm (Ed.): Pelagonii Artis veterinariae quae extant, recensuit, praefatus commentatus est Maximilianus Ihm. Teubner, Leipzig 1892.

literature

• James N. Adams: Pelagonius and Latin veterinary terminology in the Roman Empire (= Studies in Ancient Medicine , 11). Brill, Leiden 1995, ISBN 90-04-10227-2 .
• Pierre-Paul Corsetti: Un nouveau témoin de l'Ars veterinaria de Pelagonius . In: Revue d'histoire des textes 19, 1989, pp. 31–56.
• Klaus-Dietrich Fischer: Pelagonius. In: Reinhart Herzog (ed.): Restoration and renewal. The Latin literature from 284 to 374 AD (= Handbook of the Latin Literature of Antiquity , Volume 5). CH Beck, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-31863-0 , pp. 80-83.
• Klaus-Dietrich Fischer: The first Latin treatise on horse medicine and its author Pelagonius Saloninus . In: Medizinhistorisches Journal 16 (3), 1981, pp. 215-226.
• Klaus-Dietrich Fischer, Dietmar Najock : In Pelagonii artem veterinariam concordantiae (= Alpha-Omega , series A, 48). Olms-Weidmann, Hildesheim 1983, ISBN 3-487-07409-5 .
• Karl Wilberg: The horse healing art of Pelagonius . Dissertation Berlin 1943.

Web links

• Literature by and about Pelagonius in the catalog of the German National Library