Day Three-Galenical Menu-making

There were many cultures with much impact on the herbal/medicine front throughout the ages.

Pedanius Dioscorides wrote the classic text De Materia Medica in A.D.60, and this remained the standard textbook for 1,500 years. Dioscorides was reputed to have been either the personal physician to Antony and Cleopatra or an army surgeon during the reign of the Emperor Nero.

The Greek theories of medicine reached Rome about 100 B.C.

With the fall of Rome in the 5th century, the center of Classical learning shifted East and the study of Galenical medicine was focused in Constantinople and Persia.
Glenism was adopted with enthusiasm by the Arabs and was merged with the folk beliefs and surviving Egyptian learning. It was this mixture of herbal ideas, practice, and traditions that was re-imported into Europe with the invading Arab armies.

The most important works of the time was the Kitab al-Qanun ot the Canon of Medicine, by Avicenna.

This was based firmly on Galenical principals and by the 12th century had been translated into Latin and brought back to the West to become one of the leading textbooks in Western medical schools.

Tomorrow, out of the Dark Ages~ and The Science Of Life~

Thanks for reading.