[Sca-cooks] Charlemagne and the doctors

[Volker Bach]

--- Laura C. Minnick <lcm at jeffnet.org> schrieb am So, 7.3.2010:


> Terry Decker wrote:
> > Here's a little quote from Einhard.
> > 
> > Bear
> > 
> > "His health was good until four years before he died,
> when he suffered from constant fevers.  Toward the very
> end he also became lame in one foot.  Even then he
> trusted his own judgment rather than the advice of his
> physicians, whom he almost loathed, since they urged him to
> stop eating roast meat, which he liked, and to start eating
> boiled meat."
> > 
> > Einhard, The Life of Charlemagne, chapter 22.
> > 
> Yes- that's the quote that got me started on the whole
> thing of wondering why his doctors insisted on boiled meats.
> (As it turns out, no one tells the emperor what to do!) Have
> a brand-new copy of Anthimus that I'm starting in on. Might
> get some illumination there. :-)
 
According to Hans-Dieter Stofföler in his commenterd edition of Walahfrid Strabo's Hortulusa, the most widespread medical text of the Carolingian era was Quintus Serenus' 'liber medicinalis'. Serenus' main source was Pliny, of all people. I've also found Anthimus and a collection of 'Ariostotelian' adages that clearly do refer to humoral theory, though they don't really lay it out. 

I haven't been able to traclk down a copy yet, but according to Stoffler, Serenus original text is in Aemilius Baehrens' collection Poetae Latini minores (Vol III, pp. 103 ff, Leipzig 1879)

CHeers

Giano



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Sie sind Spam leid? Yahoo! Mail verfügt über einen herausragenden Schutz gegen Massenmails. 
http://mail.yahoo.com