De Medicina

1750

Shoults Lb 1750 C

[Rotterdam], [Joh. Daniel Beman]

A lot of medical treatises were written in ancient Rome but none of them were original works, all having been copied or translated from Greek texts. Despite the fact that the Romans were not ‘great scientific innovators’ they made huge advances, for the time, in public health. Sewage systems, bath houses and aqueducts brought fresh water into Rome and contributed to maintaining the health and well-being of the Roman populus. It is possible that Aulus Cornelius Celsus (c. 25 BC- 50 AD) was not a doctor but he wrote an enormous encyclopaedic work, of which only De medicina survives. This treatise, a great source on medicine in the Roman world, details medicinal preparations, remedies, surgeries, treatment for fractures and among other things, how to prepare a tonic for the expulsion of dead foetuses.