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]