Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 18-19. (Budapest, 2000)
Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts - Guide to the Exhibition
The third famous representative of classical medicine, Dioscurides Pedianos (c. 40-90 AD), was born in Anazarba, Asia Minor. Like many of his compatriots he joined the Roman imperial army and served as a military doctor. Travelling with the army around the empire he had become accustomed to a great variety of plants and trees. He applied this vast knowledge when writing his major work the Peri hyles iatrikes {De Materia Medica), which involves five books, describing plants, oils and minerals. This book was the other most frequently used classical textbook in medieval times, beside the works of Galen. The separate sheet in the case (No.19) is from this book. The Peri hyles iatrikes was thoroughly commented, and revised by the outstanding Italian Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1500-1577) in his II Dioscoride con gli suoi discorsi aggiuntovi etc. (Venice 1544). These commentaries, that is to say, the opuses of Dioscurides Pedianos and Mattioli altogether, became the foundations of non-chemical, modern pharmacology. There are many finds from the Roman times, in the show-case, that were excavated in Pannónia. Transdanubia, as we may call it geographically, came under Roman sovereignty in the beginning of the first century AD, the province itself was organized in 9 AD. These finds inform us also about the trade connections of the different Roman provinces. The glass vessels (No. 7) had been produced in Italy and Germania, then were imported to Pannónia. They used these glass containers for storing different oils and make-ups (No. 10). The surgical instruments have been excavated in Aquincum, the Roman antecedent of Budapest. Have a look of the bronze scalpel: note, that the shape of scalpels has hardly changed during the past eighteen centuries. There are a few Roman amulets from the imperial age on show, and two Etruscan votive objects from the 2nd century B.C., i.e. a foot and a symbolic phallus (No.5). 4. Islam and the public health There were two basic components in the culture of the Islam: Arabic language and Muslim religion. In their greatest age the territory they controlled was impressively large. It covered all lands from Northern India to the Frank Empire. Significantly, during the first period of the Islam, the culture of the conquered nations like those of the Persians, the Aramians, the Copts, the Jews, the Greek diaspora around the Levante, and those of the Central Asian peoples, had been preserved more or less intact. Muslim medical writings took over the results of a tremendously large area that had a great variety of cultures. The Ncstorian Christian physicians had particularly affected Arabic medicine. These influences, combined with the Muslim thought, brought about a specific synthesis. In a certain extent the Islam further developed classical Greek and Oriental medicine, mainly by its accurate observations. Islamic culture flourished from the 8th to the 14th centuries. 30
