Hippocratic recipes : oral and written transmission of pharmacological knowledge in fifth- and fourth-century Greece / / by Laurence M.V. Totelin.

• Superior document: Studies in ancient medicine, v. 34
• Author: Totelin, Laurence M. V.
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in ancient medicine ; v. 34.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (384 pages)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Hippocratic Recipes is the first extended study of the pharmacological recipes included in the Hippocratic Corpus. The recipes, found mostly in the gynaecological and nosological treatises, are here examined both from a philological and a sociocultural point of view. Drawing on studies in the fields of classics, social history of medicine, and anthropology, this book offers new insights into the production and use of pharmacological knowledge in the classical world. In particular, it assesses the deep interactions between oral and written traditions in the transmission of this knowledge. Recipes are addressed as texts, but the existence of ‘missing links’ in the written tradition are acknowledged.

Table of Contents

Oral transmission of medical knowledge and written recipes -- The history of the written catalogues of recipes -- Hippocratic recipes between home remedies and haute medecine -- Imports, geographical determinism, and influences : the use of exotic and luxury ingredients in the Hippocratic catalogues of recipes -- Fertility and sex : the symbolism attached to some of the ingredients of the Hippocratic gynaecological recipes -- Reading, studying, and using the Hippocratic catalogues of recipes -- The afterlife of Hippocratic recipes.