CHAPTER LVII
EARLY THIRTEENTH CENTURY MEDICINE: GILBERT OF ENGLAND AND WILLIAM OF ENGLAND
Representatives of thirteenth century medicine—Question of Gilbert’s date—Works ascribed to Gilbert—The Compendium medicinae—General character of his medicine—An estimate of it by a modern physician—Picturesque compounds—Empirica and an old wife’s remedy—Use of red for small-pox; occult virtue—Magical treatment of epilepsy—Poisons and snake-oil—Eye cures—Influence of the stars—The soul, number, and geometry; physiognomy—Astrological medicine in William of England’s De urina non visa—Other works by William of England or by other Williams.
Representatives of thirteenth century medicine.
Medical writers of the thirteenth and early fourteenth century are so numerous and their writings so similar, that it will be advisable to treat of only two or three of them as examples of the rest. At the close of the thirteenth century Peter of Abano and Arnald of Villanova were such important personalities and so addicted, the one to astrology, and the other to occult science, that we must devote an entire chapter to each. Of the writers before them it will perhaps be sufficient if we consider in some detail, first Gilbert of England, who seems to have flourished in the first half of the thirteenth century and who was much cited by the later medical writers; next, a brief but significant work in astrological medicine composed in 1219 by a William of England (or of Aragon?); and finally in a second chapter Petrus Hispanus, who terminated his brilliant career in 1277 as Pope John XXI, and to whose account of “the way of experience” we shall add briefly something concerning the similar discussion of medical experiment in John of St. Amand who seems to have written between 1262 and 1280.[1567]
Question of Gilbert’s date.
It seems certain from the citation of Gilbert by Petrus Hispanus and other writers—possibly by Bartholomew of England—that he must have written rather early in the thirteenth century.[1568] Haeser,[1569] who dated him about 1290, and Freind, who dated him about 1270, are both certainly wrong. But his date has not yet been fixed with exactness, and it is doubted whether he was physician to Hubert Walter who died in 1205, as Bale, Pits, and Leland tell us. It is also disputed whether a Master Richard whom he cites was Richard of Salerno, who flourished at the close of the twelfth century, or Richard of Wendover and Paris, who was physician to Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241) and died himself in 1252 or 1256. Because our Gilbert cites Averroes it has been argued[1570] that he did not flourish until the middle of the thirteenth century but Michael Scot had translated Averroes’ commentary on the metaphysics of Aristotle early in the century.
Works ascribed to Gilbert.
A manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris contains Experiments of Master Gilbert, Chancellor of Montpellier,[1571] and there was a chancellor of that university named Gillibertus in 1250. It remains uncertain, however, whether he was the same as Gilbert of England, and whether the Experiments are by Gilbert of England or perhaps a later compilation made partly from his Compendium and partly from other sources. The Dictionary of National Biography describes the Experiments as “a collection of receipts, many of which bear Gilbert’s name and are certainly his, for they agree closely with passages in his Compendium without being identical.” If “Experiments of a Chancellor and Cardinal” in a manuscript at Madrid[1572] were the same work, there would be reason for thinking that Gilbert of England became a cardinal. “A secret of Gilbert the cardinal” is contained in an alchemistic manuscript of the fifteenth century at Cambridge.[1573] We also hear of a Gilbertus Anglicus who was a great theologian and wrote a commentary upon the oracle of Cyril the Carmelite.[1574] It would not be strange to have in the course of a century or two more than one writer from England named Gilbert. But it also at that time would not be strange to have the same man write on medicine and theology, and such a man is just the one who might be expected to fill both the posts of chancellor at Montpellier and cardinal at the papal court. We shall see that Peter of Spain wrote on logic as well as medicine and became pope. But to note one or two other treatises that have been ascribed to Gilbert of England. An Antidotarium which is ascribed to him in a thirteenth century manuscript[1575] is perhaps a portion of the Compendium, but the commentary of Gilbert on the Verses of Giles concerning Urines was an independent and well-known work.[1576]
The Compendium medicinae.
Gilbert’s chief work, and the one which we shall discuss, is the Compendium medicinae,[1577] a medical compilation in seven books. Its quotations from the Surgery (Chirurgia) of Roger of Parma inclined Dr. Handerson to date it about 1240 and not before 1230.[1578] It seems to have set the style for such works as the Lilium medicinae of Bernard Gordon and the Rosa medicinae of John of Gaddesden.[1579] The first book deals with fevers, the second begins with the hair, the third treats of diseases of the eyes, the fourth of ills of the neck and throat, the fifth discusses the appetite, the sixth the liver, and the seventh the private parts. The seven books of Gordon’s Lilium cover the same ground respectively, except that Gordon omits the surgical passages which Gilbert incorporated in his work.[1580] E. Littré in the Histoire Littéraire has described Gilbert’s work as “abounding in superstitious or ridiculous or childish formulas.” To these Gilbert often adds such expressions as “This has been proved,” or copies the accounts in his authorities even to such phrases as “in our presence.” But we have already seen this to be the practice in the far-off days of Aëtius of Amida. Gilbert also often calls this or that assertion false, but here again the scepticism probably does not always originate with him. His work is of course professedly a compilation. Gilbert nevertheless seems at times to speak from his own experience and medical practice.
General character of his medicine.
If one were to attempt a brief general characterization of Gilbert’s medicine, it would be that he combines Aristotelian principles and reasoning, and the hypothesis of four elements and four qualities, with a practical regimen of bathing, diet, bleeding, plasters, rubbing with ointments, and the like—which is perhaps largely Salernitan. His procedure is vitiated by a large residuum from early magic as well as by incorrect scientific hypotheses handed down from the Greek philosophers. His pharmacy, however, makes more use of herbs than of gems or of parts of animals. But his recipes are legion and many of them include an absurdly large number of ingredients. He also discusses the signs of diseases, their course and character, and the processes of the human body.
An estimate of it by a modern physician.
Since I wrote the preceding paragraph, a rather detailed presentation of the contents of Gilbert’s Compendium has fortunately been published in English from the pen of one better fitted than I to judge its medical defects and merits. Dr. Handerson’s eminently sane conclusions may be briefly indicated by two quotations. “It is not difficult, of course, to select from the Compendium a charm or two, a few impossible etymologies and a few silly statements, to display these with a witty emphasis and to draw therefrom the easy conclusion that the book is a mass of crass superstition and absurd nonsense. This, however, is not criticism. It is mere caricature.”[1581] “The book is, undoubtedly, the work of a famous and strictly orthodox physician, possessed of exceptional education in the science of his day, a man of wide reading, broadened by extensive travel and endowed by the knowledge acquired by a long experience, honest, truthful, and simple minded, yet not uncritical in regard to novelties, firm in his own opinions but not arrogant, sympathetic, possessed of a high sense of professional honor, a firm believer in authority and therefore credulous, superstitious after the manner of his age, yet harboring, too, a germ of ... healthy scepticism.”[1582]
Picturesque compounds.
Some of Gilbert’s over-elaborate compounds possess picturesque names as well, for instance, the potion of St. Paul and the ladder of Hermes.[1583] The latter was composed at Heliopolis on the altar of the sun and written not in letters but figures. It consists of sixty different simples and is called a ladder because the amount of these simples used in the compound is increased step by step. First one takes one ounce each of four simples, then two ounces each of four more, and so on for four species at a time, until the quantity of fifteen ounces is reached and the list of sixty simples is exhausted. This compound is asserted to be beneficial for rather more than fifteen ailments.[1584] Gilbert employs various Salernitan pills and they usually contain from ten to twenty ingredients each.
Empirica and an old-wife’s remedy.
When other remedies fail Gilbert has recourse, like Marcellus, to empirica. One by which many “under our charge” (in manu nostra) who were thought sterile have borne children is as follows.[1585] In the vigil of St. John the Baptist[1586] dig certain herbs by the roots from the earth before the third hour, repeating the Lord’s Prayer thrice and not speaking to anyone going or returning. In silence, too, extract the juice from the herbs and write on a piece of parchment these words, “The Lord said, ‘Increase’ x Uthiboth x ‘and multiply’ x thabechay x ‘and fill the earth’ x amath x.” If the man wears this writing about his neck, a boy will be born; if the woman wears it, a girl. Other empirica employ suffumigations with a tooth of a dead man and an herb that has grown through a hole in a stone. In another passage to aid child-bearing Gilbert recommends the water in which a murderer has washed his hands.[1587] He repeats the good old remedies for gout of binding frogs’ legs or asses’ hoofs or tortoises’ feet upon the patient’s extremities, right on right and left on left, but cites therefor the mysterious authority “Torror,” while “Funeius” is his source for the use of the magnet in the same way. Gilbert states, however, that he has little inclination towards these things, but that it is just as well not to omit what the ancients have said.[1588] In another passage he tells that a certain old woman has freed many persons from jaundice with the cooked juice of the plantagenet.[1589]
Use of red for small-pox: occult virtue.
Gilbert is credited with being the first to mention the employment of red colors in the treatment of small-pox.[1590] It is interesting to note that the passage in which he does this has to do also with the practices of old-wives and with the conception of occult virtue. He writes, “Old women of the countryside give burnt purple in drink, for it has the occult nature of curing variolae. The same is true of dyed cloths.”[1591] Here again therefore we seem to have a real discovery developed from or concealed beneath a bit of experimental magic. John of Gaddesden is said to have used scarlet cloths to cure a son of Edward I of small-pox.
Magical treatment of epilepsy.
The following very magical procedure is used for epilepsy and is called expertissimum.[1592] At the first access of the disease, when the patient falls to the ground, all his clothes except his shirt should be removed and placed at his feet. The nails of all his fingers and toes should next be clipped and wrapped in a cloth. A long white thorn is then to be split and the patient dragged feet first through the cleft as far as his middle. The thorn should then be cut into small bits and placed with the nail parings. Next the patient’s hair should be cut in three places. These clippings of hair and the knife used in the operation are then to be added to the other paraphernalia wrapped in the cloth, and the whole is to be buried underground, and the following words uttered. In the patient’s right ear, “Christ conquers”; in his left ear, “Christ reigns”; and to his face, “Christ commands.” Others perform the ceremony differently, cutting the patient’s shoe latchet into four pieces and burying them in the form of a cross at his head, feet, and either hand with some of his nails and hair. And the names of the three kings—that is, the Magi who came to adore Christ—should be worn about his neck.
Poisons and snake oil.
Gilbert’s account of poisons repeats such usual statements as that the saliva of a fasting man is poison for snakes,[1593] that the viper deposits its venom on a stone by the shore when entering the water to have commerce with the fish, and that there was a girl fed on poison who caused the deaths of kings who loved her and whose saliva killed animals who approached her.[1594] Gilbert cites for the last “Ruffus,” however, and not the Secret of Secrets. A medicinal unguent is made by cutting off the heads and tails of snakes, as in Galen’s directions for preparing theriac, and distilling an oil from them.[1595]
Eye cures.
Parts of animals are much employed in corrosives for eye complaints. Green lizards, all gall, but especially that of birds of prey, omne stercus but human especially, all salts but especially nitrates, the inner skin of a hen’s liver, the blood of a black fly, and many other similar substances are recommended.[1596] For spots in the eyes Gilbert suggests administering whole in drink the little worms with many feet which are found between the bark and trunk of trees. “But they should be taken with the Lord’s Prayer.”[1597]
Influence of the stars.
Occasionally a passage evinces Gilbert’s belief in the influence of the stars. He speaks of the participation of the heavens in the process of human generation[1598] and of the influence of the various planets on the formation of the embryo in the womb.[1599] In arguing that a poisonous compound multiplies its potency through the union of the species composing it, and that it “has a stronger action than if it were simple”[1600]—a passage in which there is a close approach to our conception of chemical change—Gilbert adduces the influence of the heavens as a factor in increasing the strength of the compound. He holds that the celestial bodies resemble terrestrial mineral substances in not feeling pain, but that unlike them they are sentient, sensible, and unchangeable. They are bodies, but uncorruptible.[1601] Arnald of Villanova[1602] at the end of the century cites Gilbert’s warning in his first book on fevers against bleeding the patient during dog days or the Egyptian days or when the moon is in conjunction with a malevolent planet. Gilbert adds that the wise doctor will always observe the moon.
The soul, number, and geometry; physiognomy.
In the midst of his discussion of dropsy Gilbert digresses to treat of the soul, “because ignorance gives birth to shame and stupidity to poverty.” Some traces of numerical and geometrical mysticism are seen in his discussion.[1603] He represents Pythagoras as saying that the soul is number moving itself, and that of its four properties or functions intellect is like the number one because it comprehends simple matters and so is compared to a point. Reason is like two or a line since it comprehends form as it exists in bodies. Opinion is like four or a surface because it comprehends form as form. Science is like eight or a cube because it comprehends form ut est in subiecto. Gilbert further explains that the three souls assigned to man by Aristotle are really the triple power of one soul.[1604] He compares the vegetative soul to a triangle, the sensible soul to a square, and the rational soul to a circle. Gilbert regards the disagreement between Aristotle and Plato concerning the movement of the soul as verbal rather than real. “Aristotle discusses matters truly, essentially, and philosophically; Plato, figuratively, casually, and mathematically.” Gilbert occasionally embodies the dicta of the physiognomists in his Compendium, for instance: “He whose eyes are large and tremulous is lazy and a braggart and fond of women”; and “He who has large ears is stolid and long lived.”[1605]
Astrological medicine in William of England’s De urina non visa.
Because perhaps of Gilbert’s commentary upon the verses of Giles concerning urines, a Master G. of England who is the author of “a book in which he tells how to know the character of the urine without inspecting it and many other things by means of astrology,” in a Vienna manuscript is called in the catalogue Gilbertus instead of Guilelmus Anglicus.[1606] As many other manuscripts[1607] of the treatise show, the work is really the Of Urine Unseen written in 1219 by William of England, a citizen of Marseilles, by profession a medical man, by merit of science an astronomer, as he himself states. Indeed, there are extant other astronomical works by him, one of which is dated 1231.[1608] The object of the brief treatise is how to tell the nature of the patient’s disease and the outcome of it from the stars and signs of the zodiac without inspection of the patient’s urine. The nine chapters deal with (1) “the quadruple way of astrological speculation,” that is, nativities, revolutions, interrogations, and elections; (2) “the comprehension of the effects of superior bodies” on the human body for each sign of the zodiac and the use of astrology in medicine; (3) the division of the human body among the planets and their natures and properties with the diseases appropriate to them; (4) the houses of the planets; (5) the distribution of the parts of the body among the planets and signs with an accompanying chart of eighty-four squares arranged in seven columns and twelve rows; (6) how to arrive at a judgment in any particular case by finding the ruling planet;[1609] (7) “of the place of the liver and its significator and the virtues of the same”; (8) of the color and substance of the urine; (9) of the outcome of the sickness and its end. William mentions in closing a case where he correctly predicted that the patient would die in exactly two months and eight days.
Other works by William of England or by other Williams.
We have already alluded elsewhere[1610] to “the very great secret of Catenus, king of the Persians, concerning the virtue of the eagle” which William of England is credited with having translated from the Arabic. And we have suggested that a William of Aragon who commented upon the Centiloquium ascribed to Ptolemy and wrote a treatise on the interpretation of dreams might possibly have been the same man.[1611] We also hear of a “William, master of medicine, of Provençal nationality,” who translated from Greek into Latin the life of the philosopher Secundus, which work he brought with him from Constantinople. Afterwards, we are told, this William became a monk of St. Denis and finally the abbot of that monastery. Secundus is described as a philosopher who observed the rule of silence and led the life of a Pythagorean, and who was associated with the emperor Hadrian.[1612] He appears to have broken his silence enough to give forth Sententiae which were treasured up by that emperor.[1613]
[1567] HL, XXI, 541.
[1568] On the life of Gilbert, besides the articles in DNB and HL 21 (1847), 393-403, see J. F. Payne, British Medical Journal (Nov. 12, 1904), 1282, and H. E. Handerson, Gilbertus Anglicus, 1918 (published posthumously for private distribution by the Cleveland Medical Library Association, Cleveland, Ohio), 18-24.
[1569] Haeser, Lehrbuch d. Gesch. d. Medicin, I, 711.
[1570] DNB, article on Gilbert.
[1571] BN 7056, fols. 93r-95r, “Experimenta magistri Gilberti Cancellarii Montepessulani”; many of them open, “Gilbert said”; they have been published with a discussion of their authorship by P. Pansier, in Janus, (1903).
[1572] Escorial P-II-5. 14th century, fols. 69v-74, Incipiunt experimenta Cancellarii et Cardinalis.
[1573] Trinity 1120 III, 15th century, fols. 19-21.
[1574] Gonville and Caius 388, 14-15th century, fol. 103, “Gilbertus Anglicus super oraculum Cyrilli Carmelitae. Frater Gilbertus anglicus, magnus ille theologus....”
[1575] Gonville and Caius 379, 13th century, fols. 134-41r, headed in an old hand, “Inc. Antitodus Gileberti ... / ... Expl. Antidotarium Guilberti.”
[1576] Many copies of it are listed in the 15th century catalogue of MSS of St. Augustine’s Abbey at Canterbury. An extant 13th century MS at Cambridge is St. John’s 99, fols. 11-22v, “Versus Egidi de urinis cum commento gilberti.”
[1577] The following citations will be to the edition of Lyons, 1510.
[1578] Handerson (1918), pp. 22-24.
[1579] For a treatment of him in English see H. P. Cholmeley, John of Gaddesden and the Rosa Medicinae, Oxford, 1912. The Rosa was printed at Pavia, 1492 (the John Crerar Library, Chicago, has a copy of this edition), and again in 1516 and 1595. Gordon’s Lilium was printed at Venice in 1496 (also in the John Crerar Library); it had previously been translated into French and Spanish. See HL. 25, 329ff. for Gordon’s life and other writings.
[1580] “Gordon’s work does not contain a single chapter on surgery proper,” Handerson (1918), 77.
[1581] Handerson (1918), p. 75.
[1582] Ibid., 76.
[1583] Compendium medicinae, fols. 119v. and 357r.
[1584] Possibly there is some connection between the 15 steps of this ladder of Hermes and the 15 fixed stars of first magnitude and the treatise ascribed to Enoch or Hermes on 15 stars, 15 herbs, and 15 stones.
[1585] fol. 287r.
[1586] Or Midsummer eve.
[1587] fol. 307r. “Lotio manuum alicuius interfectoris detur.”
[1588] fol. 327r. “Quamvis ego declino ad has res parum, tamen est bonum scribere in libro nostro ut non remaneat tractatus sine eis qui (?) dixerunt antiqui.”
[1589] fol. 260v.
[1590] Handerson (1918), 52.
[1591] fol. 348. “Vetule provinciales dant purpuram combustam in potu, habet enim occultam naturam curandi variolas. Similiter pannus tinctus de grano.”
[1592] fol. IIIv.
[1593] fol. 349r.
[1594] fol. 348v.
[1595] fol. 120v.
[1596] fol. 134.
[1597] fol. 136r.
[1598] fol. 284v.
[1599] fol. 305v.
[1600] fol. 350v.
[1601] fol. 304r.
[1602] Regule Generales Curationis Morborum, Doctrina IV. “Item ille Gilbertus anglicus in prima parte sui libri in cura ethice.” That is, in that portion of the first book of the Compendium devoted to the fever called “ethica.” This passage in Gilbert is also referred to by Handerson (1918), 29.
[1603] fol. 243r.
[1604] fol. 244r.
[1605] From Handerson (1918), 34-36 where further illustrations are given.
[1606] Vienna 5207, 1342 A. D., fols. 208-10, “Incipit liber magistri G(ilberti) Anglici in quo docet cognoscere disposicionem urine non vise et multa alia secundum astrologiam.”
[1607] Some MSS are: Cotton Appendix VI, fols. 2-5; Sloane 3281, 13th-14th century, fols. 76v-79; Harleian 2269, a paper folio, fol. 88; Ashmole, 345, 14th century, fols. 70-74; Ashmole 393, 15th century (?), fols. 56-57v, “Explicit liber Anglici nationis quondam civis Marsiliensis de urina non visa editus 1219”; Canon. Misc. 46, 15th century, fols. 61-67; CU Trinity 1406, 15th century, fols. 173-6; BN 7298, 14th century #17; BN 7328, 7413, 7416, 7440; CLM 267, 14th century, fols. 46-8; CLM 588, 14th century, fols. 93-6; Berlin 963, 14-15th century, fols. 74-6; Vienna 5311, 14-15th century, fols. 42-52; Amplon. Folio 37, fols. 49-51, de urina non visa, followed at fol. 52 by “de pactis secundum astrologiam,” which would seem to be another treatise; Amplon. Quarto 196, 361, and 391; Amplon. Quarto 345, 14th century, fols. 53-4 astrologia de iudiciis medicine, is probably the De urina non visa; but Amplon. Quarto 357, 13-14th century, fols. 1-21, astrologia, seems rather long for it.
I have read the treatise in Cotton Appendix VI, Canon. Misc. 46, and Ashmole 345. It opens, “Ne ignorancie vel pocius invidie redarguar, mi Germane, qui quandoque apud Masciliam aliquando mecum studuisti ...” but the wording of this opening sentence varies a little in different MSS.
Duhem, III (1915), 287-91, suggests that “mi Germane” may refer to Gilbert of England who would thus be William’s brother or cousin.
[1608] They will be found listed with references to MSS and such portions as have been printed in Duhem, III (1915), pp. 287-91.
[1609] “de inventione iudicis cui nomen almutaz.”
[1610] See above, p. 93.
[1611] See above, p. 301. I realize that William would have to be indeed a cosmopolitan to come from both England and Aragon as well as being a citizen of Marseilles; but copyists may have confused Aragon and Anglicus, although it does not seem very likely.
[1612] CUL 186, 13-14th century, fols. 66-67, “Incipit vita Secundi philosophi de Greco in Latinum translata a Magistro Willelmo medico natione Provinciali. Hanc secum de Constantinopoli detulit; post factus monachus in cenobio Sancti Dionisii; ac postremo perficitur Abbas eiusdem loci.” Opens, “(S)ecundus fuit philosophus: hic philosophatus est omni tempore silentium conservans, et Pitagoricam ducens vitam.” Ends, “precepit eius libro sacre bibliothece inseri et intitulari.”
CUL 1391, 14th century, fol. 214v, “De Secundo philosofo,” has the same Incipit.
Other MSS are CLM 9528, 13th century, fol. 33-, “Erat quidam philosophus Secundus dictus”; and CLM 18757, 15th century, fol. 22-25.
There are doubtless many more MSS. Manitius (1911), p. 285, states that “Der lateinische Secundus findet sich übrigens in alten Katalogen von s. XIII an nicht selten, ... nämlich in Canterbury (Christ-Church und St. Augustin), Dover, Peterborough, Prüfening, Durham, bei Benedikt XIII, Amplonius von Ratinck, Borso d’Este und in Leicester.”
[1613] The Dicta or Sententiae of Secundus were printed with the Altercatio Hadriani Aug. et Epicteti philosophi, in 1628; see Manitius (1911), pp. 268 and 284.