Paul of Aegina or Paulus Aegineta (Aegina, 625?–690?) was a 7th-century Byzantine Greek physician best known for writing the medical encyclopedia Medical Compendium in Seven Books. For many years in the Byzantine Empire, this work contained the sum of all Western medical knowledge and was unrivaled in its accuracy and completeness.
Life
Nothing is known about his life, except that he was born in the island of Aegina, and that he travelled a good deal, visiting, among other places, Alexandria.[1] He is sometimes called Iatrosophistes and Periodeutes, a word which probably means a physician who travelled from place to place in the exercise of his profession. The exact time when he lived is not known; but, as he quotes Alexander of Tralles,[2] and is himself quoted by Yahya ibn Sarafyun (Serapion the Elder),[3] it is probable that Abu-al-Faraj is correct in placing him in the latter half of the 7th century.[4]
Works
The Suda says he wrote several medical works, of which the principal one is still extant, with no exact title, but is commonly called Medical Compendium in Seven Books (Latin: De Re Medica Libri Septem). This work is chiefly a compilation from earlier writers.
His reputation in the Islamic world seems to have been very great, and it is said that he was especially consulted by midwives, whence he received the name of Al-kawabeli or "the Accoucheur."[4] He is said by the Arabic writers to have written a work, "De Mulierum Morbis," and another, "De Puerulorum Vivendi Ratione atque Curatione." His great work was translated into Arabic by Hunayn ibn Ishaq.
The sixth book on surgery in particular was referenced in Europe and the Arab world throughout the Middle Ages and is of special interest for surgical history. The whole work in the original Greek was published in Venice in 1528, and another edition appeared in Basel in 1538. Several Latin translations have been published and it was first translated into English, with commentary by Dr. Francis Adams sometime between 1844 and 1848.
References
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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Aegineta, Paulus. |
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).
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