Theodorus Priscianus () was a physician at

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

during the fourth century, and the author of the

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 ...

work ''Rerum Medicarum'' in four books.

Career

Priscianus was a pupil of the physician

Vindicianus Saint Vindicianus (''Vindician'') () ( 632 – 712) was a bishop of Cambrai-Arras. His Calendar of saints, feast day is 11 March. He is called a spiritual follower of Saint Eligius (Saint Eloi). Life Traditionally, his birthplace is given as ...

, fixing the period of his life in the fourth century. He is said to have lived at the court of Constantinople, and to have obtained the dignity of

Archiater An archiater () was a chief physician of a monarch, who typically retained several. At the Roman imperial court, their chief held the high rank and specific title of ''Comes archiatrorum''. The term has also been used of chief physicians in commun ...

. He belonged to the medical sect of the '' Empirici'', but not without a certain mixture of the doctrines of the '' Methodici'', and even of the '' Dogmatici''.Theodorus Priscianus
''Rerum Medicarum Libri Quatuor''
praef. p. 81, ed. Argent.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vol. III, p. 525 ("Theodorus Priscianus").

Works

The ''Rerum Medicarum Libri Quatuor'', or "Medical Matters in Four Books", is sometimes attributed to a person named '' Octavius Horatianus''. The first book treats of external diseases, the second of internal, the third of female diseases, and the fourth of physiology, etc. The author, in his preface, speaks against the learned and worthy disputes physicians held at the bedside of the patient, and against their reliance on foreign remedies in preference to indigenous ones. It was first published in 1532, in a

folio The term "folio" () has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging Paper size, sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for ...

edition at Strasburg, and a

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

edition at Basel. Of these, the latter is more correct than the other, but not so complete, as the whole of the fourth book is wanting, and also several chapters of the first and second books. It also appeared in Kraut's ''Experimentarius Medicinae'', Argent, folio, 1544, and in the Aldine Collection of ''Medici Antiqui Latini'', 1547, folio, Venet. J. M. Bernhold published a new

octavo Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...

edition in 1791, at Ansbach, but only printed a first volume that contained the first book and part of the second. Priscianus is generally identified as the author of a short Latin work, entitled ''Diaeta sive de Rebus Salutaribus Liber'', first published in 1533. fol. Argent., with ''Hildegardis Physica,'' and in a separate form in 1632. octavo. Hal. ed. G. E. Schreiner. The manuscripts and these editions of his work simply identify the author as ''Theodorus''.

Criticism

Of the ''Rerum Medicarum'', Dr. William A. Greenhill writes, "Several of the medicines which Priscianus mentions are absurd and superstitious; the style and language of the work are bad; and altogether it is of little interest and value."

References

Bibliography

* ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' is a biographical dictionary of classical antiquity, edited by William Smith (lexicographer), William Smith and originally published in London by John Taylor (English publisher), Tayl ...

'', William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849).

Career

Works

Criticism

References

Bibliography

Further reading