''De Gradibus'' was an

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

book published by the Arab physician Al-Kindi (c. 801–873 CE). ''De gradibus'' is the Latinized name of the book. An alternative name for the book was ''Quia Primos''.p. 19
"Al-Kindi, A Precursor Of The Scientific Revolution"
Plinio Prioreschi, ''Journal of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine'' 1, #2 (October 2002), pp. 17–19. In ''De Gradibus'', Al-Kindi attempts to apply

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...

by quantifying the strength of drugs. According to Prioreschi, this was the first attempt at serious quantification in medicine.p. 18, Prioreschi 2002. During the Arabic-Latin translation movement of the 12th century, ''De Gradibus'' was translated into

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

Gerard of Cremona Gerard of Cremona (Latin: ''Gerardus Cremonensis''; c. 1114 – 1187) was an Italians, Italian translator of scientific books from Arabic into Latin. He worked in Toledo, Spain, Toledo, Kingdom of Castile and obtained the Arabic books in the libr ...

. Al-Kindi's mathematical reasoning was complex and hard to follow;

Roger Bacon Roger Bacon (; or ', also '' Rogerus''; ), also known by the Scholastic accolades, scholastic accolade ''Doctor Mirabilis'', was a medieval English polymath, philosopher, scientist, theologian and Franciscans, Franciscan friar who placed co ...

commented that his method of computing the strength of a drug was extremely difficult to use.

References

Medical works of the medieval Islamic world Mathematical works of the medieval Islamic world Scientific works of the Abbasid Caliphate 9th-century Arabic-language books {{math-hist-stub