A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 2 (of 2) / During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era

by Lynn Thorndike

CHAPTER LXIV

EXPERIMENTS AND SECRETS OF GALEN, RASIS, AND OTHERS:

I. MEDICAL AND BIOLOGICAL

Books of “Experiments” or “Secrets”—Rasis on pains in the joints—Medical Experiments of Galen or Rasis—Value of such medical experiments—Experimenters of many lands and cities—Who was the Latin translator?—The Secrets of Galen—Addressed to “friend Monteus”—Was he William of Saliceto’s “friend Montheus”?—Patients and prescriptions—Liber medicinalis de secretis Galieni—Rasis On sixty animals—Eberus On the virtues of animals—Galen and Honein On plants—Secrets or Aphorisms of Rasis—A literal translation of its preface—Contents of its six chapters—Experimentator—Experiments of Nicholas of Poland and Montpellier—His Antipocras—Other works of Nicholas—Appendix I. The manuscripts of the Medical Experiments—Appendix II. The manuscripts of The Secrets of Galen.

Books of “experiments” or “secrets.”

In this chapter we continue our examination of the pseudo-literature current in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by considering and distinguishing one from another a number of books of “experiments” or “secrets” which are mainly medicinal in character, although some are concerned especially with the properties of animals, and most of which are attributed either to Rasis or Galen or to both of them. Some were included in the early printed editions of their works, others are found frequently in medieval Latin manuscripts. Some of them perhaps really are by Rasis or have some connection with his works. In the next chapter we shall go on to books of experiments primarily of a chemical and magical character but some of which also are ascribed to Rasis or Galen.

Rasis on pains in the joints.

It is essential to distinguish these various treatises from one another rather carefully, because a number of different writings are ascribed to Galen or Rasis under the common title of “Book of Experiments” or words to that effect.[2386] Thus Gilbert of England, a medical writer of the first half of the thirteenth century, cites “the expert experiments from Galen’s book of experiments” for the statement that ammonia is a remedy for pains in the joints,[2387] while a fifteenth century manuscript at Berlin, containing various extracts from medical works, cites “a certain experimenter of whom Rasis writes in the book of experiments, ‘He cured many afflictions by simple medicines.’”[2388] We may first note that the title Liber experimentorum or Experimenta Rasi is sometimes applied to what is probably a genuine work of Rasis,[2389] namely, the treatise On diseases of the Joints (De egritudinibus juncturarum), which appears in both early printed editions of Rasis’ works.[2390] I think that this treatise sometimes is found alone in the manuscripts,[2391] but more often it is followed by, or run together with, as if they formed a single work, another treatise or portion of a treatise which more properly deserves the title, Book of Experiments.

Medical Experiments of Galen or Rasis.

This is the book of medicines tested by experiment or of medical experimentation[2392] or of experiments of the altar. It constantly talks about experimenters and its contents are arranged as experiments. The work opens with the statement that the fire which descended upon the altar burnt the books of the king or kings, and with these numerous medical works, including some which the author himself had begun to compose. This faintly suggests the fire of 192 A. D. mentioned by Galen which destroyed the shrine of Peace and the libraries on the Palatine hill and the first two books, which had already been published, of his own work on compound medicines. It might therefore seem that the present treatise is that of a forger trying to pass himself off as Galen, and in the printed text of 1481 and many manuscripts this opening statement is introduced by the words, “Said Galen.” In other manuscripts there is no such mention of Galen and the treatise is ascribed to Rasis, like the work on diseases of the joints which so often precedes it. Between these two works there often intervenes a brief treatise or chapter on the medical treatment of children (Practica puerorum or parvorum). Where the Medical Experimentation comes to an end is not easy to determine. It might seem to be brought to a close by a sentence reading, “Said Galen”—or, “Says Rasis”—“Now we have said our say in this book which we call the book of the experimental testing of medicines, which we have proved and have received from wiser men.” But after some further lines of text, which scarcely seem the beginning of a new treatise, we meet in some editions or manuscripts with an “Explicit” or “Expliciunt experimenta Galenis,” while in others the text proceeds without a break, although this sentence occurs, “Now moreover, of those medicines we have mentioned in this treatise many tested by experience, but if we acquire yet others, we will write them at the end of this treatise.” This would seem to indicate that the work is not yet finished. The text then often continues, as we have said, discussing such matters as “How to take medicine without nausea; marvelous pills according to Rasis,” “Medicines which beautify the face,” “The composition of many oils,” soporifics invented by Rasis to cure his own insomnia brought on by too intense application to the medical art, and other remedies for varied complaints. In the 1497 edition of Rasis’ works, which does not contain the Medical Experimentation proper, most of this supplementary material was combined in four chapters under the separate title, The Antidotarium of Rasis,[2393] although that title apparently belongs to another work, while a passage on the stone was also printed as a distinct Tractatus Rasis de preservatione ab egritudine lapidis. But in the 1481 edition and such manuscripts as I have examined these chapters or paragraphs are not separated from the Medical Experimentation, and the whole finally ends, “Expliciunt experimenta rasis.” Possibly, therefore, everything that we have noted so far, beginning with the Diseases of the Joints, should be regarded as part of a composite treatise by Rasis, whose name occurs most often and prominently. If so, it is a very omnibus work and loosely hung together, nor when its parts are found together are they always in the same sequence.

Value of such medical experiments.

If we consider that portion which may be described as the Medical Experimentation proper, we find that the Pseudo-Galen, or whoever he is, goes on to say that he does not grieve so much over the loss of other books in the fire as he does concerning some medical experiments which were there and which he had acquired from certain good experimenters (a quibusdam bonis viris experimentatoribus). For a single one of those experiments he may have had to give in exchange several good experiments of his own or perhaps a considerable sum of money. Sometimes a man may make a fortune and get a name for great learning by knowing just one experiment which will cure a single disease. Such men are very reluctant to impart their secret to others and sometimes it dies with them. Having thus secured the reader’s sympathy, attention, and interest, the author discloses the fact that, despite his losses in the fire which descended upon the altar, he still has some experiments left. He affirms that he has composed the present work of medicines tested by his own experience or received from good medical men, and that he does not fill up his book with familiar remedies like tyriac and opiates, but introduces medicines whose existence is generally unknown.

Experimenters of many lands and cities.

Our author then proceeds to list one medical compound after another, giving its ingredients and method of preparation, its effects on various parts and processes of the human body, and the diseases which it cures. Sometimes he explains the properties and operation of each constituent. He usually gives the name and city of the experimenter from whom he received the prescription, but these proper names are difficult to decipher, as they vary in the printed editions and manuscripts[2394] and are often abbreviated and probably misspelled in both. Thus “the experiments of Yrini pigami romani” are perhaps the same as “the experiments of Urcanus Romanus” which Gilbert of England cites for some pills for sciatica.[2395] However, we seem to read of Sacon or Socion, “the greatest of Greek medical men,” whose experiments our author gets from his disciples; of Gargeus or Agarges, who was the lord of all the wise men of his time; of Cateline, physician to King Lithos; and of other physicians and medicines from Egypt, Macedonia, and Sicily. Often a number of experiments are taken from a single authority; eleven from Gereon the Greek which our author has put to the test and found to be truly marvelous; thirty by Athaharan, an experimenter of the city of Abthor, some of which our author apologizes for as well known; three compound and thirty simple medicines by Achaason, an experimenter of the city of Athens; twenty from Zeno of Athens, a great physician whom our author says he had never seen because not contemporary with him, but that his master had seen him and got good experiments from him and passed them on to our author who has proved them oftentimes and found them true. Our author especially esteems the physicians of the altars, who are reputed superior to other medical practitioners because they cure by means of the sacrificial meats. Of a medicine which he received “from an Egyptian stranger,” he exclaims that it has not its like and that this stranger had it from one of the physicians of the altars. These allusions suggest that our author is a pagan, perhaps a Sabian like Thebit ben Corat, rather than a Mohammedan or Christian, but are perhaps a dodge of the forger like his opening allusion to the fire which descended on the altar—suggestive of fire-worship in Rasis’ own Persia.

Who was the Latin translator?

In several manuscripts[2396] the treatise which we have just been discussing is ascribed to Galen rather than Rasis and is said to have been translated from Greek into Arabic by John or Johannitius, that is, by Honein ben Isʿhak or Hunain ibn Ishak, or Hunayn ibn Ishaq, a Christian Arab who died in 873,[2397] and from Arabic into Latin by a Franchinus or Farachius or Ferranus or Ferrarus or Frarthacius. Steinschneider[2398] has explained the spellings, Franchinus, Farachius, Faragut, Fararius, and Ferrarius, as all applying to Faradj ben Salem, a Jew of Girgenti who was connected after 1279 with Charles of Anjou as a translator. This Jew, commonly called Faragius or Feragius in the Latin manuscripts, translated the Continens of Rasis[2399] and the medical treatise entitled Tacuinum Dei.[2400] But can he be identified with the Ferrarius whom De Renzi[2401] classed among the medical writers of the school of Salerno and whose works are found in a manuscript dated as early as the twelfth century?[2402] Also our treatise would seem to have been translated into Latin by the first half of the thirteenth century, since there are several manuscripts of it from that century, and since Gilbert of England cites either it or the Rasis on pains of the joints which regularly accompanies it. Perhaps Faragius made a re-translation, apparently not an uncommon occurrence in the medieval period. It is also worth recalling that Peter the Deacon listed among the works translated by Constantinus Africanus a De experimentis. Can this have been the treatise ascribed to Galen or Rasis, and can Franchinus and the other names possibly be corruptions of Africanus? But this is not all. Just as Galen and Rasis have ascribed to them both medical works and works of alchemy, so one manuscript contains “Extracts from the treatise on the art of alchemy of brother Ferrarius,” who, like that other friar inclined to alchemy, Roger Bacon, “directs his letter to the Pope.”[2403] Nor do these extracts seem to agree with the treatise in alchemy of Efferarius which has been printed,[2404] although he too is described as a monk who addresses apostolicum quendam.[2405] Probably, however, the same alchemist is meant in both cases, but it also seems probable that in general there was more than one writer named Ferrarius. But from the perplexing problems of who was the translator of the Medical Experiments and of the identity or different personality indicated by Ferrarius and other similar names let us turn to another work attributed to Galen.

The Secrets of Galen.

The Secrets of Galen, or The Book of Secrets, is a treatise which seems to occur with fair frequency in the manuscripts[2406] and has also appeared in print.[2407] It is perhaps most found with other works of Galen, but also occurs in manuscripts containing experimental books, and in particular the Medical Experiments of Galen or Rasis just considered, or in manuscripts with other works of Rasis. Gerard of Cremona is often mentioned in the manuscripts as the translator of the work from Arabic into Latin, and such a translation is included in the list of Gerard’s works drawn up by his associates soon after his death.[2408] At the close of the treatise occurs this statement: “Says Hunayn, son of Isaac, ‘This is what we have found from the books (or, book) of Galen for the use of the religious, and it is more glorious and blessed than his other books, and of aid, so that if another book were lost, I could supply it from this one.’”[2409] This statement seems to indicate that this treatise, like the Medical Experiments, had first been translated from the Greek to the Arabic by Honein ben Ishak, or perhaps rather that Honein, who was a Christian Arab, has made a compilation of extracts from the works of Galen for the use of persons of religion.

Addressed to “friend Monteus.”

The opening words of the treatise are: “You have asked me, O friend Monteus, to write you a book on the cure of diseases in accordance with experimental medicine and rational considerations from those numerous cases which I have wisely tested of good men of religion in the service of the king (or, in the observance of the Faith).”[2410] That these remarks are not the preface of a translator but the words of the original author is indicated not only by the fact that in at least one manuscript[2411] they are called, “The words of Galen,” but also by the fact that, after the writer has made a few general medical observations and allusions to his other writings on the elements, on aid to the limbs, on disease and accidents, and on compound medicines, he again addresses “brother Montheus” under the caption, “Words of Galen commending his book.”[2412] Montheus is now told that “this is the book of great assistance which I composed in medicine, for I have tested all its contents many times in similar constitutions.” Galen, or whoever the writer may be, regards this treatise as supplementing and rectifying his work on compound medicines. In yet a third passage “friend Monteus” is told of an “alcohol” which keeps the eyes in good condition which the writer has used.[2413]

Was he William of Saliceto’s “friend Montheus”?

But here occurs a difficulty, for we find William of Saliceto, the noted Italian surgeon of the thirteenth century, opening his work on surgery with the words, “My intention is, friend Montheus, to publish for you a work on manual operation in order to satisfy the petition of our associates.”[2414] It would therefore appear either that William’s work on surgery is a mere translation of some earlier treatise, or that William is also largely responsible for the so-called Secrets of Galen, and that he has throughout added new material and remarks of his own to those of Honein and the genuine or pseudo-Galen. This would not surprise us, for we have evidence that he was not the first to take such liberties with the work of Galen and Honein. Moses Maimonides, the Jewish writer of the twelfth century, says in his Aphorisms that in the treatise of Hippocrates on diseases of women, upon which Galen commented and which Johannitius translated, he has found many interpolations of a marvelous character “which some other person than Johannitius wrote and some other person than Galen expounded.”[2415] But it would be difficult to explain why our treatise in the manuscripts is quite generally said to have been translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona, while William of Saliceto is never mentioned.

Patients and prescriptions.

The Secrets describes the writer’s treatment of such ills as stupor and chills, frenzy, headache, sore eyes, white growths in the eyes, earwigs, earache, bones stuck in the throat, nosebleed. His patients are likewise regularly mentioned and include old men of seventy and young men of twenty, one of the sons of the kings, a king’s daughter, “a man from the kings of Alexandria,” and another “man from kings,” orators, and “a man from one of the villas of the Romans” who was troubled with sciatica. He also describes pills for pains in the joints which he made for his young friend Glaucus,[2416] a philosopher of Beneventum.[2417] But he tells especially, as he had been asked to do, of his prescriptions for monks and ascetics, both men and women, who had ruined their health by their austerities.[2418] Be he Honein or Gerard of Cremona or William of Saliceto, the writer has no false modesty and says of his “alcohol” for the eyes, for instance, “This is the last word, and a great secret.” His recipes, however, are the usual sort of compounds and are limited to medicinal purposes, so that there is no reason for us to dwell upon them further.

Liber Medicinales de Secretis Galieni.

From its title one might think that a Medicinal Book of the Secrets of Galen in an Oxford manuscript[2419] would turn out to be the same treatise as the foregoing, but upon examination it is found to consist chiefly of the medicinal virtues of animals and parts of animals, beginning with man. The names of the animals are given in a foreign language, which is probably meant to be Arabic, and the text is accompanied by a series of spirited little miniatures of the animals in the margin, ending with the transmarine eagle. The work rather resembles that of Sextus Placitus on medicine from animals which precedes it in this manuscript and which we have discussed in an earlier chapter.[2420] The closing chapters of our text deal with the four humors. The superstitious and fantastic uses to which the parts of animals are put is indicated by the opening words of the treatise, “Bind on the tooth of a dead man.”

Rasis On sixty animals.

A very similar work on sixty animals is ascribed to Rasis in the 1497 edition of his works, and Albertus Magnus cites “the book of sixty animals” to the effect that the flesh of the dog is hot and dry.[2421] In reality in the treatise as it has reached us, only fifty-six animals are discussed, the first being the lion, and the fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth, man and woman.[2422] Most of the animals treated are equally familiar, but some names have been left in Arabic. The work does not describe the animals and their habits, still less draw moral lessons or spiritual illustrations from them, but limits itself to their medicinal properties, or in a few cases, such as ants or mad dogs, to remedies against their bites. Much of the contents is of the same sort as Pliny’s discussion of the medical virtues of parts of animals, but the few authorities cited are Arabic or Greek,—Aristotle, Dioscorides and Galen. The work is very superstitious. With the right eye of a hedge-hog and other ingredients an eyewash is made which is supposed to enable one to see in the dark, while if the left eye of the same animal is fried in oil and a little of it inserted in a person’s ear on the point of a stylus, he is supposed to drop off to sleep at once.[2423] Eating a frog is recommended as a restraint upon sexual passion and upon conception.[2424] It is said that everyone will be terrified who enters a house that has been sprinkled with the water in which the animal called iaroboath has been drowned.[2425] If a man’s tooth and a hoopoe’s wing are suspended over a sleeper, he will not awake until they are removed.[2426] To cure tertian or quartan fever one places on the back of one’s neck with the left hand a powder made of a spider who has been captured while in the act of catching flies, pulverized, and stored in linen.[2427]

Eberus On the virtues of animals.

Very similar to, indeed perhaps in large measure identical with one or the other of the two foregoing treatises or with the De medicina ex animalibus of Sextus Placitus, judging from the description of it given by Valentinelli, is a work on the virtues of about seventy animals in a manuscript of the fifteenth century at Venice.[2428] Like the work of Sextus Placitus it opens with “the little beast which some call the taxo.”

Galen and Honein On Plants.

To Galen was ascribed not only the work on the occult medicinal virtues of animals already noted, but also a like treatise on plants.[2429] It was translated from the Arabic into Latin by Grumerus Index de Placentia (Grumerus, a judge of Piacenza) and Master Abraham the physician, and is in the form of a Gloss or Commentary by Honein ben Ishak or Johannitius, whom we again encounter as the translator or adapter of Galen from the Greek. Honein states that Galen’s wish in this work was to set down some medicines of marvelous properties which he had collected in the course of his lifetime, and which Honein too has often put to the test, “and experience never fails.” These medicines are not commonly known, because Galen wished them divulged only to men of wisdom and discretion. Others, however, before Honein have translated the treatise from Greek into Arabic, and a preceding glossator has dealt with it in a way of which Honein does not approve and which he intends to rectify, including only what is true and what he has himself tested. Forty-six specimens are then treated, of which a few are stones or parts of animals rather than plants.[2430] Honein’s gloss is mainly devoted to explaining what plant or tree Galen had in mind in each case, or, where Galen does not give an exact name, to stating its Arabic equivalent. In a few cases the opinion of Abraham the Jew is briefly added.

Secrets or Aphorisms of Rasis.

To Rasis is attributed not only a work on animals much like that ascribed to Galen; there also is a Book of Secrets in Medicine printed under his name.[2431] But to avoid confusion with the two books of secrets ascribed to Galen, we shall henceforth speak of Rasis’ treatise by its alternative title of Aphorisms. The following is a literal translation of its preface, interesting for its attitude to science and books, and both original and at the same time occasionally a bit incoherent and abrupt or strange and mystical in tone. Perhaps these characteristics are to be partly accounted for by awkwardness of the Latin translator in grappling with the Arabic, or, if we assume that the work is by Rasis, to the coming on of old age, or perhaps they are merely the mystic and boastful style characteristic of pseudo-literature.

A literal translation of its preface.

“I have collected and classified diseases, and I have shown cures and the natures of cures from the canons of the ancients and from treatises and chapters to the best of my ability; and I beseech God to supply me with the additional strength and power to complete this book and make it a useful one. Already we have completed a compilation of things tested by experience in the arts, namely, philosophy and physics, two subjects in which words and facts are infinite. And men can never make an end of those subjects (Nec etiam homines in eis complementum habere possunt.) But our intention in this book is to show things useful to humanity. And in this we differ from the ancients who hid things that were essential to know and deprived of light the path of science and virtue. And witness to this point is our big book of divine science, which is the Book of Spirituals, and our book Of the Spirit. And our discussion in the Book of Diets, namely, how indulgence may be removed from these for all time. And I have condensed the language so that one can get to the point more easily. And I expect retribution from God who will furnish me aid. For without Him nothing has effect.”

“Says Abu Bekr: the wise man is not occult and in every age, despite frauds and concealments of the paths of science and of the ancient arts, compilers have collected their doctrines and discovered their ways whether hidden or manifest. And this book of ours is first and is secret and is handy. And show it not to undeserving persons. In it is contained reason, it adds something to the ancients, and as long as there shall be days and years I shall live and gain through this book of mine, and I have no doubt that this book of mine is something secret. For it has been my plan to tell some secrets in it, both in prognostics of the future and in confidential information and some of my own cases. Said confidences I acquired and collected from the books of sages who had not perfectly revealed them. And from what I have experienced myself and acquired by my reason. And witness thereof is my rational language, and I have spoken in collections of medicines and foods, and I want to strike a golden mean between these and free my words entirely from the accidental. And know that this is the pith of all utility and the pearl of clarity which brings light out of darkness. Which book the ancients would have praised had they lived till now, and I have divided it into six chapters without superfluity; with comprehensiveness and brevity I now begin to speak with my excessive virtue and occult science.”

Contents of its six chapters.

The first chapter on prognostics deals with the weather as a sign or cause of disease and also with bodily symptoms. The next two chapters on experiments, confidences, and Rasis’ own cases, contain some close resemblances to two treatises already described in this chapter, listing marvelous oils, plasters, confections, and suffumigations like the latter part of the Experimental Medicines of Galen or Rasis, making the same citations of Haly, and giving Rasis’s prescription for his own insomnia; and also the alcohol (here spelt alcofol) for white growths of the eyes of the Secrets of Galen, which is again called “the last word” (Scias quod hoc est ultimum). The fourth chapter speaks of the great force of occult virtues in natural substances, the difficulty of measuring and comprehending such occult virtue, and the consequent need of moderation and caution in the use of medicines and the danger of rash experiment. The author’s advice that “of medicines everyone should take less” was certainly sound amid the extravagances of ancient and medieval pharmacy. He gives an interesting list of drugs which may safely be employed.[2432] The fifth chapter, after a brief introduction by Rasis, consists of the Secrets or Prognosticon of Hippocrates, which we have already met following or in the midst of the Experimental Medicines of Galen. The sixth chapter is a collection of miscellaneous aphorisms such as that in the practice of medicine “Laymen and those would judge by their intuition and young men who have not had practical experience are no better than murderers,”[2433] and that “women who are accustomed to sleep a great deal on the right side will hardly bear a female child.” In both the sixth and second chapters the need of a doctor’s knowing astronomy and the importance of observing the planets and the moon are touched on. Appeals for divine aid and the rendition of thanks to God occur occasionally throughout the treatise.

Experimentator.

Withington states in his Medical History that Rasis was sometimes called Experimentator. Now among the many medieval “experimental books” was one which is cited simply as Experimentator by two thirteenth century writers, Petrus Hispanus, afterwards Pope John XXI, in his Thesaurus Pauperum,[2434] a medical compendium of great popularity, and Thomas of Cantimpré in his encyclopedia entitled De natura rerum.[2435] In his preface Thomas describes Experimentator as “a book without name of the author, which I have heard was compiled in modern times.”[2436] No manuscript of a work so entitled seems to be extant. The citations of Thomas and Peter from the work deal largely with animals, their habits and semi-human characteristics, and the virtues medicinal and otherwise of various parts of their carcasses. Experimentator’s prescriptions included eating the heart of a wolf and the gall of a bear, taking a powder compounded of the burnt hoof of an ass, the ashes of a weasel, and swallows burnt alive, touching an aching tooth with that of a dead man, and even more disgusting remedies. Some of these suggest the Sixty Animals of Rasis, but it will be remembered that that treatise did not touch upon the habits of the animals but only their medicinal uses. Moreover, Peter of Spain cites herbs and other non-animal remedies from Experimentator for paralysis of the tongue, toothache, and constipation, while Thomas of Cantimpré repeats “the properties of air according to Experimentator.” Thomas does well to speak of the book as compiled in modern times, for many of its statements have a familiar sound and suggest use of such authors as Pliny and Marcellus Empiricus. For instance, Thomas cites Experimentator for the account found in Pliny’s Natural History—and described by Pliny himself as an “experiment”—of marking a dolphin’s tail in order to learn its age, if it should chance to be caught again. On the whole, if neither Peter nor Thomas knew who wrote the Experimentator, it is probably idle for us to make surmises, unless possibly it may have been by Thomas himself, whose authorship even of the De natura rerum is seldom recognized either in the manuscript catalogues or in the manuscripts themselves.

Experiments of Nicholas of Poland and Montpellier.

Of medieval collections of experiments which are medicinal in character we may further include some which do not fall under the head of pseudo-literature but are ascribed to a writer of the thirteenth or early fourteenth century.[2437] Such are “The Experiments of Brother Nicholas, a physician of Poland, who was at Montpellier thirty (or, twenty) years and who had such efficiency (or, was a man of so great experience) that neither before him is there believed to have been his like, nor is it hoped for the future, as is patent in his marvelous works in divers provinces and regions in easily expediting great and sudden cures.”[2438] Nicholas is here spoken of as “brother” because he was a Dominican friar. In one manuscript this Nicholas of Montpellier is further called “de Bodlys.” Serpents are used a great deal in his experiments. Thus to break the stone in the reins or bladder he recommends that the patient drink a little “snake-dust” (pulverem serpentis)[2439] in wine early in the morning and late at night. Or a pulverized toad or scorpion would be even more efficacious.

His Antipocras.

In one manuscript the Experiments of Nicholas are immediately followed by his Antipocras or Book of Empirical Remedies.[2440] This work, in form a poem with a prose prologue, in content is in part an invective against the physicians of the Hippocratic school, who, whether on rational grounds or from motives of professional jealousy, have questioned the marvelous cures which Nicholas has wrought by unusual pills or drugs, or by external applications in rings and brooches. In part it is a listing of these empirical methods, ligatures and suspensions, employment of occult virtues and amulets, by means of which Nicholas asserts that he has wrought so many marvelous cures, and which he declares are based on repeated experiment and solid experience, whether they seem reasonable a priori or not. He assails the authority of Galen who said, “Physician, how can you cure, if you are ignorant of the cause?” He makes much of the doctrine of occult virtues in many things, and “more in despised than in precious and famous things.” As authorities in his support he cites Tobias, Ptolemy, Hermes and “master Albert.” The magnet, as usual, is brought forward as a proof of the existence of occult virtue.

Other works of Nicholas.

A treatise entitled, Fates of the Stars, is ascribed to a Nicholas of Poland in a manuscript at Munich, but if the date given, 1477 A. D., be that of composing the treatise, the author is evidently too late to be our Nicholas.[2441] Of chemical experiments attributed to some Nicholas we shall speak in the following chapter.

[2386] For instance, the following 14th century MSS at Munich and Paris contain Experimenta ascribed to Rasis along with his Divisiones, Antidotarium, Synonyms, etc. CLM 13045, fol. 143; 13114, fol. 247; BN 6902, 6903, 6904, 6906. It is necessary to examine the MSS to tell what the work or works thus designated may be, which I have been unable to do in the case of the MSS at Munich. It is also impossible to tell what Experimenta of Rasis are meant in numbers 1227 and 1229 (James) of the medieval catalogue of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury. Other extant MSS which cannot be identified from the notices of them in the catalogues are: Wolfenbüttel 479, 15th century, fols. 304-16, Experimenta Rasis, and 3175, 15th century, fols. 181v-6v, Experimenta magis famosa et magis usualia ex libro experimentorum generali Rasis; Vienna 2364, 14th century, fols. 153-73, Rhasis, Experimenta, and 2387, 14th century, fols. 137-9, quaedam experimenta translata a “Guirardo.”

[2387] Gilbertus Anglicus, Compendium medicinae, Lyons, 1510, fol. 328v.

[2388] Berlin 908, fol. 62.

[2389] In the Arabic list of 232 titles ascribed to Rasis published by Ranking (1913), numbers 17 and 18 are works on gout.

[2390] Milan, 1481; and Bergamo, 1497.

[2391] Apparently so in CLM 12, 15th century, fols. 277-84; which, however, I have not personally examined. The opening words of the De egritudinibus iuncturarum are, “Dicit Rasis volo in hoc capitulo dicere medicinas que sunt necessarie in doloribus iuncturarum.”

[2392] See Appendix I for a list of the MSS of it.

[2393] At fols. 98v-101v: cap. 1, “De aptitudine medicinarum ut sine horribilitate possint sumi secundum rasim pillule mirobalanorum”; cap. 2, “De medicinis que ornant faciem”; cap. 3, “Compositio multorum oleorum”; cap. 4, containing remedies for various complaints, opens, “Summa istius capituli. Post electionem specierum instrumentorum” and ends, “cum sirupo cit(r?)oniorum.” But in both the edition of 1481 and St. John’s 85, fol. 176v, recipes to induce sleep are headed “Chapter Three.”

[2394] For instance, the first compound is described in the 1481 edition of Rasis as “ab afloīa experimentatore qui erat de civitate teriste,” while in Arundel 115 we read “ab astarō experimentatore qui erat de civitate tetith.”

[2395] Compendium medicinae (1510), fol. 328v.

[2396] See Appendix I. Unfortunately I have not seen these particular MSS.

[2397] E. G. Browne (1921), pp. 24-26, repeats some good stories concerning Hunayn ibn Ishaq from al-Quifti and the Fihrist, and says (p. 26) “Generally, as we learn from the Fihrist, Hunayn translated the Greek into Syriac, while (his pupil) Hubaysh translated from Syriac into Arabic, the Arabic version being then revised by Hunayn, who, however, sometimes translated directly from Greek into Arabic. All three languages were known to most of these translators, and it is probable, as Leclerc suggests, that whether the translation was made into Syriac or Arabic depended on whether it was primarily designed for Christian or Muslim readers.”

Concerning Honein see further Suter (1900), pp. 21-23.

[2398] Steinschneider (1905), p. 14. In Virchow’s Archiv, XXXIX (1868) 317-23, he holds that a prologue by Farachius opening, “Friend, may God grant you noble morals,” should precede the Incipit, “Said Galen, ‘The fire that descended,’” but in the next chapter we shall find reason for believing that this prologue belongs rather with the Liber Vaccae, also ascribed to Galen and Honein.

[2399] In two Vatican MSS of the 14th century, Urbin. Lat. 237 and 239, are respectively books i-xi and xiv-xxv of the Elhâwi (El-hauy) of Rasis, which Feragius or Faragut is said to have translated from Arabic into Latin at the mandate of King Charles at Naples. “Explicit translatio ... facta de mandato excellentissimi regis Karoli ... per manus magistri feragii Iudei filii magistri Dalem de aggregendo (Salez de Agrigento) ... die lune xiii februarii septimae indictionis apud Neapolim.” The variant readings in parentheses are from two 15th century volumes of 537 and 471 double columned leaves respectively which form MS 1091 in the library of the University of Bologna.

[2400] Ed. J. Schott, Strasburg, 1532. The work divides into two parts, Tacuinum morborum and Tacuinum sanitatis. MSS are numerous but often anonymous: Vienna 2322, 13th century, 26 fols.; Bologna University Library 389, 14th century, 43 fols.; etc. In two Oxford MSS of the 14th century, Magdalen 102 and Corpus Christi 65, and in Vendôme 233, 15th century, fol. 81, the work is said to have been translated from Arabic into Latin “by the hands of master Faragius for King Charles.” But in S. Marco XIV, 50, 14th century, it is said to have been translated under Manfred (1258-1266), “Liber Tacuini translatus de arabico in latinum in curia illustrissimi regis Manfredi scientiae amatoris.” The Arabic original, Taqwímu’s-Sihha, was written by Ibn Butlán who died about 1063 A. D.

[2401] Collectio Salernitana, 1852-1859, I, 363, 369.

[2402] Library of the Dukes of Burgundy (Brussels) 4567, 12th century, Ferrarii, Tractatus de medicina, opening, “In tractatu nostro primo videam.” But perhaps the MS is dated too early in the catalogue of 1842. In Digby 197, 13th century, fols. 57-69, opening “Febris ut testatur Jo (annitius) est calor innaturalis,” and closing, “in qua bullierint ar. dragna (?) liquir, et succus eius. Expliciunt febres M. Ferrarii feliciter,” may be another translation from Honein. Coxe says that there is another copy of it among the MSS of All Souls College.

[2403] Digby 164, early 15th century, fol. 17, “Extracta de tractatu fratris Ferrarii super arte alkymie. Dirigit epistolam suam Papae et primo ponit artis impedimenta.” The same MS, as a matter of fact, contains (fols. 8-12v) Bacon’s letter on the secret works of art and nature and the nullity of magic.

[2404] Verae alchimiae doctrina, Basel, 1561, pp. 232-7; also in Zetzner, Theatrum chemicum, III (1613), 128-37.

[2405] Steinschneider (1905), p. 14.

[2406] They will be found listed in Appendix II to this chapter.

[2407] In the edition of Galen’s works of Venice, 1609, VIII, Spurii libri, fols. 101v-108v.

[2408] Boncompagni (1851), pp. 3-4, following Cod. Vatican 2392, fols. 97v-98r.

[2409] The Latin of the sentence reads in BN 7046, 13th century, fol. 54v, as follows, except that in parentheses variant readings are added from Balliol 231, early 14th century, fol. 45r, in Roman type, and from Berlin 166 (Phillips 1672) 14th century, fol. 34, in italics.

“Inquit hunai (hunayn, ymahin) filius ysaac. Istud (id, illud) est quod invenimus ex li. (libris, libris) utilitatis religiosorum (religiosioris) galieni (Gal’) et est gloriosioris benedictionis quam libri eius alii et iuvamenti (Berlin 166 omits et iuvamenti) quod si ceciderit alius liber ab isto transferam (transferrem) ipsum.”

Berlin 166 then adds another sentence: “Quamcunque medicinam non dixi in hoc meo libro queratur in antidotario Unaym filii ysaac et illic invenietur,” which indicates that Honein regards the Secrets as his own book and more than a mere translation of Galen.

[2410] “Rogasti me, amice montee, ut scriberem (describerem) tibi librum in medicatione egritudinum secundum experimentum medicinale et consideraciones rationales ex eis que expertus sum in multis sapientum religiosorum bonorum in cultu regis (legis).”

[2411] Berlin 166.

[2412] Reminding us of “the prologue of a certain doctor in commendation of Aristotle” in The Secret of Secrets.

[2413] BN 7406, fol. 49r; Balliol 231, fol. 40v.

[2414] See the following MS at Venice, S. Marco XIV, 58, 14th century, fols. 41-93, Mag. Guillelmi de Saliceto, chirurgiae tractatus quinque. “Propositum est, amice Monthee, tibi edere librum de operatione manuali ut satisfactio respondeat peticioni sociorum....”

[2415] From a Latin translation of the Aphorisms of Moses ben Maimon printed in 1489 (number IA.28878 in the British Museum), Particula 24.

[2416] In the same MS, Balliol 231, fol. 389v, is Galen’s Ad Glauconem nepotem suam (desinit in libro VII).

[2417] “Et eius regio benevetiti”; this suggests Gerard of Cremona or William of Saliceto rather than Honein.

[2418] This feature of the treatise reminds one somewhat of the treatise On Melancholy ascribed to Constantinus Africanus, see above, I, 752.

[2419] Rawlinson C-328, 15th century, fols. 147r-154v, “Liber medicinalis de secretis Galieni. Dens hominis mortui ligetur ... / ... alterius studiosus perpendet.”

[2420] See above, Chapter 26.

[2421] De animalibus, XXII, ii, 18, “Dicitur autem in libro sexaginta animalium quod caro canis calida est et sicca.”

[2422] In the table of contents of the printed edition of 1497 the work is spoken of as “De proprietatibus iuvamentis et nocumentis sexaginta animalium”; in the page headings it is briefly called, “De sexaginta animalibus”; but at the opening of the work itself we read, “Liber Rasis philosophi filii zacharie de proprietatibus membrorum et de utilitatibus et nocumentis animalium aggregatus ex dictis antiquorum secundum quod probaverunt antiqui, et continet sermones 56.”

A “liber Rasis et diascorides de naturis animalium” is listed in the fifteenth century catalogue of MSS of St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury.

[2423] Cap. 23.

[2424] Cap. 30.

[2425] Cap. 33.

[2426] Cap. 36.

[2427] Cap. 54.

[2428] S. Marco XIV, 45, written in 1467, fols. 1-56, Eberi de virtutibus animalibus, opening, “De virtutibus quae sunt in animali quod dicitur taxus vel thaximus.” Valentinelli, V, 119, infers that the author’s name is Eberus from the statement at fol. 29, “at haec est quam ego Eberus probavi.”

[2429] In the Venice, 1609 edition of Galen’s works, VIII, Libri spurii, fols. 120-22, Galeno adscriptus liber de plantis ... per dominum Grumerum Iudicem de Placentia et per magistrum Abraham medicum de Arabico in Latinum Marsiliae translatus ... Glossa Humain, idest Ioannitii filii Isaac.

[2430] See 32) lapis qui vocatur generans aquileum, 34) lapis demoniacus, 35) the liver of a bird, 36) the brain of a bird, 40) lapis Indaicus, 43) piscis qui vocatur provocator menstruorum, 46) asphalt.

[2431] In the edition of 1481 it occupies 21 pages, “Liber rasis de secretis in medicina qui liber amphorismorum apellatur,” and divides into six chapters: I) de pronosticis rerum futurarum, II) de experiments et confidentiis, III) de casibus qui ipsi rasi acciderunt, IV) de dietis medicinis et cibariis, V) de verbis ypocratis, VI) de scientiis et intellectibus sine quibus rectus medicus esse non potest.

[2432] “He sunt medicine salve cognite mirobolanis citrini kebuli belerici emblici fudi berberum, reubarbarum, draganti, gummi arabicum, aloes, acatia, cassia fistula, terrantabin cinnamomum, amomum squinantum, calamus aromaticus cos costus darsesahon tralacta mastix sandaraca karabe, lignum aloes, muscus, camphora, ambra, gariofilii sandali spodium faufel carui nanoti sethet nux mascata, bolus armenus, neika-beri, lapides sarri, ruzubet bezari thenet, lapis lazuli, lapis iacinthus. Sisimbrium, menta, almarda dux fumus terre fenigemisch seleni lilium album, lilium celi, nenufar celeste et palliodium aliothinum rose viole virgeris ladion idest oculus bovis, virga pastoris, iusquiamus. Iste sunt tres res medicinarum in quibus non evenit timor et si cum cera vel oepo vel zucharo misceantur, raro vel numquam egro lesionem efficiunt magnam. Numquam enim vidi vel audivi quod aliquis qui his rebus medicaretur magnam lesionem inferret egris.”

[2433] Layci et qui ex ingenio proprio volunt iudicare et iuvenes qui res non sunt experti interfectores existunt.

[2434] See Chapter 58.

[2435] See Chapter 53.

[2436] Invenies etiam librum quemdam suppresso auctoris nomine quem modernis temporibus compilatum audivi cuius sententias ubicunque repereris ex hoc cognosces quod hoc nomen Experimentator subsequentibus invenies praelibatum.

[2437] Since on the one hand he cites “master Albert”, while on the other hand there are several fourteenth century MSS of his work.

[2438] Sloane 1754, 14th century, fols. 28r-30r, “Experimenta Fratris Nicholay de Polonia qui fuit in Monte Pessulano 30 annis,” etc.

Berlin 166 (Phillips 1672), 14th century, fol. 21, “Incipiunt experimenta de animalibus fratris nicholai de polonia,” etc. The variant readings in parentheses are from this MS.

CLM 534, 14th century, fol. 75, Experimenta fratris, etc., medici de Polonia qui fuit in Montepessolano.

Sloane 964, 15th century, fol. 82, “Experimentum M. Nicholai de Bodlys qui fuit de Monte pessulano.”

St. Augustine’s, Canterbury 1846 (now missing), Experimenta Nicholai de polonia.

Wolfenbüttel 3489, 14-15th century, fols. 83-135v, Experimenta magistri cancellarii de Monte Pessulano, seems too long to be our treatise; more likely it is the same as BN 7056, Experimenta magistri Gilberti Cancellarii Montepessulani.

[2439] I assume that the expression refers to the reptile itself reduced to a powder rather than to the dust which it has crawled over.

[2440] Berlin 166, 14th century, fols. 23-26, “Incipit antipocras quem composuit et similiter noncupavit frater nicholaus fratrum predicatorum, alio autem nomine appellatur liber empericorum.” I have not seen the MS, but follow the description by V. Rose (1893) I, 371-2.

In the 15th century catalogue of MSS in St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, the Experiments follow the Antipocras in MS 1604, Collecciones Michael’ de noragte.... Antipocras I liber empericorum fratris N. experimenta fratris N de polonia.

[2441] CLM 647, 15th century, fols. 51-71, Stellarum fata, anno 1477 per Nicolaum de Polonia. Diels and Sudhoff have engaged in controversy over the Antipocras of Nicholas of Poland, which Sudhoff published, Archiv f. Gesch. d. Med., IX (1915) 31-52, and Diels republished, Sitzb. d. Kgl. Preus. Akad. d. Wiss., (1916) pp. 376-94.