Isidore does not say for what purpose he wrote his De Medicina, whether to serve as a text-book to aid in the education of the clergy in the way indicated above, or merely in the spirit of the encyclopedist. A number of considerations point strongly to the former conclusion. In the first place, medicine is placed in juxtaposition with the seven liberal arts, and is separated from subjects more nearly akin to it. Secondly, the attitude which Isidore displays in speaking of medicine is one which remembers that this subject was once classed with the liberal arts. He feels called upon to explain why “the art of medicine is not included among the liberal disciplines”, and his explanation is one drawn from the pedagogical sphere; he tells us that medicine is “a second philosophy”, by which he means to say that it belongs to the highest stage of education, but plays therein a minor part. Finally, we must remember that Cassiodorus, whose comprehensive plan of education had great influence with Isidore, had recognized the need of medical knowledge in the education of the clergy, as shown in his chapter “On monks having the care of the infirm”.
It is not known what were the immediate sources of Isidore’s De Medicina. The ultimate authority for his account of diseases is the work of the Methodist Caelius Aurelianus, whose eight books containing a classification of diseases into acute and chronic are reproduced by Isidore in two chapters that occupy the greater part of the space that he devoted to medicine.
EXTRACTS
Chapter 1. On medicine.
1. Medicine is that which guards or restores the health of the body, and its subject-matter deals with diseases and wounds.
2. And so it includes not only those things which are presented in the art (ars) of those who are called medici in the proper sense, but food, drink, and covering as well; in short, all the guarding and defence by which our body is protected against blows and accidents from the outside.
Chapter 2. On its name.
1. Its name is believed to have been given to medicine from modus, that is, moderation, so that not enough but a little be used. For nature is made sorrowful by much and rejoices in the moderate. Whence also they who drink in quantities and without ceasing of herb juices (pigmenta) and antidotes, are troubled. For all immoderation brings not welfare but danger.
Chapter 3. On the founders of medicine.
1. Apollo is called among the Greeks the author and founder of the art of medicine. His son, Aesculapius, enlarged it by his fame and work. But after Aesculapius perished by a thunder-bolt, the business of curing is said to have been forbidden and the art disappeared with its author.