Innovation in Byzantine Medicine ; The Writings of John Zacharias Aktouarios (c.1275-c.1330)

361 Pages·2020·3.648 MB·English

by  Petros Bouras-Vallianatos

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OXFORD STUDIES IN BYZANTIUM
EditorialBoard
JAŚ ELSNER CATHERINE HOLMES
JAMES HOWARD-JOHNSTON ELIZABETH JEFFREYS
HUGH KENNEDY MARC LAUXTERMANN
PAUL MAGDALINO HENRY MAGUIRE
CYRIL MANGO MARLIA MANGO
CLAUDIA RAPP JEAN-PIERRE SODINI
JONATHAN SHEPARD
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,6/1/2020,SPi
OXFORD STUDIES IN BYZANTIUM
OxfordStudiesinByzantiumconsistsofscholarlymonographsandeditions
onthehistory,literature,thought,andmaterialcultureoftheByzantineworld.
EmperorsandUsurpersintheLaterRomanEmpire
CivilWar,Panegyric,andtheConstructionofLegitimacy
AdrastosOmissi
TheUniversalHistoryofStepʻanosTarōnecʻi
Introduction,Translation,andCommentary
TimGreenwood
TheLettersofPsellos
CulturalNetworksandHistoricalRealities
EditedbyMichaelJeffreysandMarcD.Lauxtermann
HolySitesEncircled
TheEarlyByzantineConcentricChurchesofJerusalem
VeredShalev-Hurvitz
Law,Power,andImperialIdeologyintheIconoclastEra
c.680–850
M.T.G.Humphreys
ByzantiumandtheTurksintheThirteenthCentury
DimitriKorobeinikov
WritingandReadingByzantineSecularPoetry,1025–1081
FlorisBernard
TheByzantine-IslamicTransitioninPalestine
AnArchaeologicalApproach
GideonAvni
ShapingaMuslimState
TheWorldofaMid-Eighth-CenturyEgyptianOfficial
PetraM.Sijpesteijn
NiketasChoniates
AHistoriographicalStudy
AliciaSimpson
Byzantines,Latins,andTurksintheEasternMediterraneanWorldafter1150
EditedbyJonathanHarris,CatherineHolmes,andEugeniaRussell
DebatingtheSaints’CultsintheAgeofGregorytheGreat
MatthewDalSanto
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,6/1/2020,SPi
Innovation in
Byzantine Medicine
The Writings of John Zacharias Aktouarios
–
(c.1275 c.1330)
PETROS BOURAS-VALLIANATOS
1
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,6/1/2020,SPi
3
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OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,6/1/2020,SPi
In memory of my grandfather
Ἄγγελος Βαλλιανᾶτος
1937–2008
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Preface
This volume grew out of a King’s College London PhD thesis on the same
subject. It does, however, have one more chapter than my doctoral disserta-
tion: Chapter6, on John Zacharias Aktouarios’ On Psychic Pneuma. There
havealsobeenseveralrevisionsofthetexttomakethebookmoreconciseand
accessible. The research for this project started sometime in the summer of
2011.TherearemanypeopleIwishtothank.Iammostimmenselygratefulto
myprimaryPhDsupervisor,DionysiosStathakopoulos,whofirstarousedmy
interestinByzantinemedicineinmyundergraduateyears.Hehasbeenatrue
teachertome,demonstratinginfinitegenerosityandpatiencewithmyvarious
concernsoverthelasttwelveyears.Ialsowishtoacknowledgeasinceredebt
to my secondary supervisor, Ludmilla Jordanova, who first initiated me into
criticaltheoryandreadseveraldraftsofmythesis,alwaysprovidingthought-
fulcomments,whichstimulatedmanyideasandpreventedmanymistakes.
I would also like to express my special thanks to Georgi Parpulov, whose
continuous encouragement and support of my study of and research into
numerous Greek manuscripts have been decisive. I am most grateful for his
rare and unselfish friendship, transcending the strict boundaries of scholar-
ship.Additionally,manythanksmustgotomytwoPhDexaminers,Peregrine
Horden and Manfred Horstmanshoff, for their insightful suggestions during
and after my examination. In particular, Peregrine’s advice has been signifi-
cant in opening up my research to a wider Mediterranean conceptual
approach. Since then he has also been a very generous and devoted mentor,
tirelessly committed to both my work and my professional development.
Moreover, I have benefited significantly from the insightful comments of the
anonymousreviewersatOUP,andfromthosescholarswhohavereadsections
of this book in various stages of its preparation: Sean Coughlin, Orly Lewis,
TassosPapacostas,GeorgiaPetridou,AliceTaylor,andChiaraThumiger.Iam
gratefulforbibliographicalsuggestionsfromtheirrespectivefieldsofexpertise
to Gerrit Bos, Fr Maximos Constas, Klaus-Dietrich Fischer, Erika Gielen,
FlorenceElizaGlaze,MonicaGreen,FrGeorgiosMetallinos,NikolaiSerikoff,
andTessTavormina.IamalsoindebtedtoallthoseByzantinistsandHistor-
ians of Medicine who encouraged me in crucial stages of my career to keep
working on Byzantine medicine, and, in particular, Judith Herrin, the late
Ruth Macrides, Maria Mavroudi, Julius Rocca, and Thomas Rütten. I would
also like to thank Vassilios Kokkalis, my school science teacher, as well as
my supervisors from my undergraduate days in London, particularly Hugh
Bowden and Dominic Rathbone, and Marc Lauxtermann, my supervisor for
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,6/1/2020,SPi
viii Preface
my Master’s at the University of Oxford. Special thanks should also go to
Elizabeth Jeffreys, who encouraged me to submit this monograph to the
Oxford Studies in Byzantium series and Charlotte Loveridge and Georgina
LeightonfromOUPfortheirconstantkindnessandprofessionalism.
I most grateful to the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation for
the generous award it granted me to bring my doctoral thesis to its comple-
tion.IwouldalsoliketothanktheArtsandHumanitiesResearchCouncil,the
A. G. Leventis Foundation, and Schilizzi Foundation, which awarded me
further scholarships in the course of my graduate research. And I would not
have been able to visit several libraries and archives abroad without the
invaluable support of the Wellcome Trust (099354/Z/12/Z) and the Faculty
ofArtsandHumanities,King’sCollegeLondon.
AconsiderableperiodofmyresearchwasspentinParisduringanErasmus
Research studentship in the Université Paris–Sorbonne (Paris IV) and I am
grateful to Béatrice Caseau for hosting me. I further benefited from a Junior
ResearchFellowshipattheJohnW.KlugeCenteroftheLibraryofCongress,
Washington DC, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The
library itself was an ideal place for research and I am indebted to Mary Lou
Reker, Special Assistant to the Director. While in Washington, I had the
pleasure of visiting Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and using its collec-
tionsatthekindinvitationofMargaretMullet,DirectorofByzantineStudies.
I am also grateful to Alain Touwaide for allowing me to access his rich
microfilm collection at the Department of Botany in the Smithsonian. I am
most grateful to the following libraries and institutions for allowing in situ
access to manuscripts and for providing me with images and permission to
reproduce them: Library of the Hellenic Parliament, National Library of
Greece (both Athens); Library of Iviron Monastery (Mount Athos); Staatsbi-
bliothek (Berlin); Bibliotheca Universitaria (Bologna); Bibliothèque royale de
Belgique (Brussels); Gonville and Caius College Library, St John’s College
Library, Wren Library Trinity College (all Cambridge); Real Biblioteca del
Monasterio (San Lorenzo de El Escorial); Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,
Biblioteca Riccardiana (both Florence); University Library (Glasgow);
Universiteitsbibliotheek (Leiden); Universitätsbibliothek (Leipzig); British
Library, Wellcome Library, Woolff Gallery (all London); Biblioteca Nacional
deEspaña(Madrid);BibliotecaAmbrosiana(Milan);BayerischeStaatsbibliothek
(Munich);Bibliotecanazionale(Naples);BodleianLibrary(Oxford);Biblioteca
centrale della Regione Siciliana (Palermo); Bibliothèque nationale de France
(Paris); Biblioteca Angelica (Rome); Patriarchal Institute for Patristic Studies
(Thessaloniki);Bibliotecanazionaleuniversitaria(Turin);BibliotecaApostolica
(Vatican City); Biblioteca nazionale Marciana (Venice); Biblioteca capitolare,
Biblioteca civica (both Verona); and Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
(Vienna).
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,6/1/2020,SPi
Preface ix
Finally, this thesis would not have been written without the love and
support of my parents Ἀγγελική and Ἀριστοτέλης, my sisters Βασιλική and
Δέσποινα, my brother Γεράσιμος, my aunt Ἀργυρώ, and my uncle Γέρων
Γεράσιμος Ἁγιοπαυλίτης. The biggest thank you is reserved for my wife,
Sophia Xenophontos, not only for helping unravel some of the abstruse
language of John Zacharias Aktouarios in translation, but also for being the
primarysourceofwisecounselandinspiration.
PetrosBouras-Vallianatos
Edinburgh
April2019