Reputation and influence—His studies in the Orient—His later life in Italy—His works were mainly translations—Pantegni—Viaticum—Other translations—The book of degrees—On melancholy—On disorders of the stomach—Medical works ascribed to Alfanus—Constantinus and experiment—“Experiments” involving incantations—Superstition comparatively rare in Constantinus—And of Greek rather than Arabic origin—Some signs of astrology and alchemy—Constantinus and the School of Salerno—Liber aureus and John Afflacius—Afflacius more superstitious than his master.
Reputation and influence.
Constantinus Africanus will be here considered at perhaps greater length than his connection with the history either of magic or experimental science requires, but which his general importance in the history of medicine and the lack of any good treatment of him in English may p. 743 justify.2950 Our discussion of him as an importer of Arabic medicine will also serve to support our attitude towards the School of Salerno. Daremberg wrote in 1853, “We owe a great debt of gratitude to Constantinus because he thus opened for Latin lands the treasures of the east and consequently those of Greece. He has received and he deserves from every point of view the title of restorer of medical literature in the west.”2951 Daremberg proceeded to propose that a statue of Constantinus be erected in the center of the Gulf of Salerno or on the summit of Monte Cassino. Yet in 1870 he made the surprising assertion that “the voice of Constantinus towards the close of the eleventh century is an isolated voice and almost without an echo.”2952 But as a matter of fact Constantinus was a much cited authority during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the works both of medicine and of natural science produced in Latin in western Europe, and his translations were cited under his own name rather than those of their original authors.2953
- 2950 Many of the works listed by Peter the Deacon and some others which he does not name have been printed under Constantinus’ name, either in the edition of the works of Isaac issued at Lyons in 1515, or in the partial edition of the works of Constantinus printed at Basel in 1536 and 1539, or in an edition of Albucasis published at Basel in 1541.
An early MS containing several of Constantinus’ works is Gonville and Caius 411, 12-13th century, fol. 1-, Viaticum, 69-de melancholia, 77v-de stomacho, 98v-de oblivione, 100r-de coitu, (no author is named for 109v-liber elefantie, 113-de modo medendi), 121-liber febrium, (169-de inamidarium Galieni).
The chief secondary investigations concerning Constantinus Africanus are:
Daremberg, Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits Médicaux, 1853, pp. 63-100, “Recherches sur un ouvrage qui a pour titre Zad el-Monçafir en arabe, Ephrodes en grec, Viatique en latin, et qui est attribué dans les textes arabes et grecs à Abou Djafar, et dans le texte latin à Constantin.”
Puccinotti, Storia della Medicina, II, i, pp. 292-350, 1855, devoted several chapters to Constantinus and tried to defend him from the charge of plagiarism and to maintain that the Viaticum and some other works were original.
Steinschneider, Constantinus Africanus und seine arabischen Quellen, in Virchow’s Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie, etc., Berlin, 1866, vol. 37, pp. 351-410. This should be supplemented by pp. 9-12 of his Die europäischen Übersetzungen aus dem Arabischen (1905). p. 742
- 2951 Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits Médicaux (1853), p. 86. p. 743
- 2952 Histoire des Sciences Médicales (1870), I, 261. p. 743
- 2953 Indeed Daremberg said in 1853 (p. 85, note) “dans le moyen âge beaucoup d’auteurs citent volontiers Constantine comme une autorité.” p. 743
His studies in the Orient.
A brief sketch of Constantinus’ career and a list of his works2954 is twice supplied us by Peter the Deacon, who wrote in the next century,2955 and who treats of Constantinus both in the chronicle of Monte Cassino, which he continued to the year 1138,2956 and in his work on the illustrious men of Monte Cassino.2957 Peter tells that Constantinus was born p. 744 at Carthage, by which he probably means Tunis, since Carthage was no longer in existence, but went to Babylon, by which Bagdad is presumably designated, since Babylon had ages before been reduced to a dust heap,2958 to improve his education. His birth must have been in about 1015. There he is said to have studied grammar, dialectic, geometry, arithmetic, “mathematics,” astronomy, and physics or medicine (physica). To this curriculum in the Chronicle Peter adds in the Lives of Illustrious Men the subjects of music and necromancy. When so little was said of spirits in the occult science of the Arabic authors of the ninth century whom we considered in an earlier chapter, it is rather a surprise to hear that Constantinus studied necromancy, but that subject is listed along with mathematical and natural sciences by Al-Farabi in his De ortu scientiarum,2959 and we shall find this classification reproduced by two western Christian scholars of the twelfth century.2960 The mathematica and astronomy which Constantinus studied very likely also included considerable astrology and divination. At any rate we are told that he not only pursued his studies among “the Chaldeans, Arabs, Persians, and Saracens,” and was fully imbued with “all the arts of the Egyptians,” but even, like Apollonius of Tyana, visited India and Ethiopia in his quest for learning. It was only after a lapse of thirty-nine or forty years that he returned to North Africa. Most modern secondary accounts here state that Constantinus was soon forced to flee from North Africa because of the jealousy of other physicians who accused him of magic,2961 or from fear that his fellow citizens would kill him as a wizard. p. 745 In view of his study of necromancy, this may well have been the case. Peter the Deacon, however, simply states that when the Africans saw him so fully instructed in the studies of all nations, they plotted to kill him,2962 and gives no further indication of their motives.
- 2954 Perhaps through the fault of the printer the list of the writings of Constantinus given by Peter the Deacon is defective as reproduced in tabular form by Steinschneider (1866), pp. 353-4. Steinschneider also incorrectly speaks of Leo of Ostia as well as Peter the Deacon as a source for Constantinus (p. 352, “Die Schriften Constantins sind bekanntlich von seinen alten Biographen, Petrus Diaconus und Leo Ostiensis verzeichnet worden”), since Leo’s portion of the Chronicle ends before Constantinus is mentioned. p. 743
- 2955 Peter was born about 1107 and was placed in the monastery of Monte Cassino by his parents in 1115. He became librarian. Monumenta Germaniae, Scriptores, VII, 562 and 565. p. 743
- 2956 Chronica Mon. Casinensis, Lib. III, auctore Petro, MG. SS. VII, 728-9; Muratori, Scriptores, IV, 455-6 (lib. III, cap. 35). p. 743
- 2957 Petri Diaconi De viribus illustribus Casinensibus, cap. 23, in Fabricius, Bibl. Graec., XIII, 123. p. 743
- 2958 Yet modern compilers and writers of encyclopedia articles invariably repeat “Carthage” and “Babylon.” p. 744
- 2959 BN 14700, fol. 171v, cited by Baur (1903), who also notes parallel passages in Al-Gazel, Phil. tr. I, 1; and Avicenna, De divis. philos., fol. 141. p. 744
- 2960 Gundissalinus and Daniel Morley. Al-Farabi’s list of eight mathematical sciences, including “the science of spirits,” was also reproduced by Vincent of Beauvais in the thirteenth century, Speculum doctrinale, XVI. p. 744
- 2961 Possibly there is some confusion with Galen’s similar experience with the physicians of Rome, which Constantinus may have reproduced in some one of his translations of Galen in such a way as to lead the reader to consider it his own experience. p. 744
- 2962 The words are the same both in the Chronicle and Illustrious Men: “quem cum vidissent Afri ita ad plenum omnibus (omnium?) gentium eruditum, cogitaverunt occidere eum.” p. 745
His later life in Italy.
Constantinus secretly boarded ship and made his escape to Salerno, where he lived for some time in poverty, until a brother of the caliph (regis Babiloniorum) who chanced to come there recognized him, after which he was held in great honor by Duke Robert Guiscard. The secondary accounts say that he became Robert’s confidential secretary and that he had previously occupied a similar position under the Byzantine emperor, Constantine Monomachos,2963 but of these matters again Peter the Deacon is silent. When Constantinus left the Norman court, it was to become a monk at Monte Cassino, where he remained until his death in 1087. p. 746 In a work addressed to the archbishop of Salerno he speaks of himself as Constantinus Africanus Cassinensis2964 and Albertus Magnus cites him as Constantinus Cassianensis.2965 What purports to be a picture of Constantinus is preserved in a manuscript of the fifteenth century at Oxford.2966
- 2963 Pagel (1902), p. 644, “Vorher soll er kurze Zeit noch in Reggio, einer kleinen Stadt in der Nähe von Byzanz, als Protosekretär des Kaisers Constantinos Monomachos sich aufgehalten und das Reisehandbuch des Abu Dschafer übersetzt haben.” But Pagel gives no source for this statement.
Apparently the notion is due to the fact that a Greek treatise entitled Ephodia, of which there are numerous MSS and which seems to be a translation of the same Arabic work as that upon which Constantinus based his Viaticum, speaks of a Constantine as its author who was proto-secretary and lived at Reggio or Rhegium.
Daremberg (1853), p. 77, held that a Vatican MS of the Ephodia was of the tenth century and therefore this Greek translation could not be the work of Constantinus Africanus in the next century, but Steinschneider (1866), p. 392, only says, “Die griechische Uebersetzung des Viaticum soll bis in die Zeit Constantins hinaufreichen.”
Another MS, Escorial &-II-9, 16th century, fol. 1-, contains a “Commeatus Peregrinantium” whose author is called “Ebrubat Zafar filio Elbazar,” which perhaps designates Abu Jafar Ahmed Ibn-al-Jezzar, whom Daremberg and Steinschneider call the author of the Arabic original of the Viaticum. The work is said to have been translated into Greek “a Constantino Primo a secretis Regis,” which suggests that Constantinus was perhaps first of the royal secretaries rather than of Reggio either in Norman Italy or near Byzantium. The translation from Greek into Latin is ascribed to Antonius Eparchus. The opening sentences of each book of this Latin version from the Greek by Eparchus differ in wording but agree in substance with those of the Viaticum of Constantinus Africanus, if we omit some transitional sentences in the latter. p. 745
- 2964 Opera (1536), p. 215. p. 746
- 2965 De animalibus, XXII, i, 1. p. 746
- 2966 Rawlinson C, 328, fol. 3. It is accompanied by the legend, “This is Constantinus, monk of Monte Cassino, who is as it were the fount of that science of long standing from the judgment of urines, and it has exhibited a true cure in all the diseases in this book and in many other books. To whom come women with urine that he may tell them what is the cause of the disease.” The illumination shows Constantinus seated, holding a book on his knees with his left hand, while he raises his right hand and forefinger in didactic style. He wears the tonsure, has a beard but no mustache, and seems to be approached by one woman and two men carrying two jars of urine. p. 746
His works were mainly translations.
Peter the Deacon states both in the Chronicle and in the Illustrious Men that while at the monastery of Monte Cassino Constantinus Africanus “translated a great number of books from the languages of various peoples.” Peter then lists the chief of these. It is interesting to note, in view of the fact that Constantinus in prefaces and introductions appears to claim some of the works as his own, and that he was accused of fraud and plagiarism by medieval writers who followed him as well as by modern investigators, that Peter the Deacon speaks of all his writings as translations from other languages. Peter does not, however, give us much information as to who the Greek or Arabic authorities were whom Constantine translated. It may be added that if Constantinus claimed for himself the credit for Latin versions which were essentially translations, he was merely continuing a practice of which Arabic authors themselves had been repeatedly guilty. Indeed, we are told that they sometimes even destroyed earlier works which they had copied in order to receive sole credit for ideas which were not their own.2967
- 2967 See Margoliouth, Avicenna, 1913, p. 49. p. 746
Pantegni.
The longest of Constantinus’ translations and the one most often cited in the middle ages was the Pantechni or Pantegni, comprising ten books of theory and ten of p. 747 practice as printed in 1515 with the works of Isaac,2968 although Peter the Deacon speaks of Constantinus’ dividing the Pantegni into twelve books and then of a Practica which also consisted of twelve books. What is the ninth book of the Practica in this printed version is listed as a separate book on surgery by Peter in his Illustrious Men, although omitted from his list in the Chronicle, and was so printed in the 1536 edition of the works of Constantinus.2969 And the Antidotarium which Peter lists as a separate title is probably simply the tenth book of the Practica as printed with the works of Isaac.2970 The Pantegni, however, is not a translation of any work by Isaac, but an adaptation of the Khitaab el Maleki, or Royal Art of Medicine, of Ali Ibn Abbas. The preface of Constantinus2971 says nothing of Ali but tells the abbot Desiderius that, failing to find in the many works of the Latins or even in “our own writers, ancient and modern,” such as Hippocrates, Galen, Oribasius, Paulus, and Alexander, exactly the sort of treatise desired, he has composed “this little work of our own” (hoc nostrum opusculum). But Stephen of Pisa, who also translated Ali into Latin in 1127,2972 accused Constantinus of having suppressed both the author’s name and title of the book and of having made many omissions and changes of order both in preface and text but without really adding any new contributions of his own.2973 Stephen further justified his own translation by asserting that not only had the first part of The Royal Art of Medicine of Ali Ibn Abbas been “corrupted by the shrewd fraud of its translator,” but also that the last and greater portion was missing in the version by Constantinus.2974 p. 748 Also Ferrarius said in his gloss to the Universal Diets of Isaac that Constantinus had completed the translation of only three books of the Practica, losing the rest in a shipwreck.2975 A third medieval writer, Giraldus Bituricensis, adds2976 that Constantinus substituted in its place the Liber simplicis medicinae and Liber graduum, and that it was Stephen of Pisa who translated the remainder of the work of Ali ben Abbas which is called the Practica Pantegni et Stephanonis. Stephen’s translation is indeed different from the ten books of the Practica printed with the works of Isaac. From these facts and from an examination of the manuscripts of the Practica Rose concluded2977 that Constantinus wrote only its first two books2978 and the first part of the ninth, which is roughly the same as the Surgery published separately among Constantinus’ works. The rest of this ninth book was translated into Latin at the time of the expedition to besiege Majorca, that is, in 1114-1115, by a John2979 who had recently been converted to Christianity2980 and whom Rose was inclined to identify with John Afflacius, “a disciple of Constantinus,” of whom we shall have more p. 749 to say presently. Rose further held that this John completed the Practica2981 commonly ascribed to Constantinus with the exception of its tenth book which, as we have suggested, seems originally to have been a distinct Antidotarium. Different from the Pantegni is the Compendium megategni Galeni by Constantinus published with the works of Isaac, and the Librum Tegni, Megategni, Microtegni listed by Peter the Deacon.
- 2968 Only the ten books of theory are printed in the 1539 edition of Constantinus. p. 747
- 2969 Chirurgia, at pp. 324-41. p. 747
- 2970 Opera omnia ysaac (1515), fol. 126v, “Liber decimus practice qui antidotarium dicitur in duas divisus partes.”
Isaac Israeli is the subject of the first chapter in Husik (1916), who calls him (p. 2) “the first Jew, so far as we know, to devote himself to philosophical and scientific discussions.” p. 747
- 2971 Daremberg (1853), pp. 82-5, gives the prefaces of Ali and Constantinus in parallel columns. p. 747
- 2972 Printed in 1492 with the works of Ali ben Abbas; Stephen’s translation was made at Antioch in Syria. p. 747
- 2973 Steinschneider (1866), p. 359. p. 747
- 2974 “Ultimam et maiorem deesse sensi partem, alteram vero interpretis callida depravatam fraude.” p. 748
- 2975 Amplon. Octavo 62. p. 748
- 2976 In his gloss to the Viaticum of Constantinus. p. 748
- 2977 Berlin HSS Verzeichnis (1905), pp. 1059-65, to whom I owe the preceding references to Ferrarius and Giraldus. p. 748
- 2978 Rose cites Bamberg L-iii-9. The two following MSS are perhaps also worth noting: The Pantegni as contained in CU Trinity 906, 12th century, finely written, fols. 1-141v, comprises only ten books. The first opens, “Cum totius generalitas tres principales partes habeat”; the tenth ends, “Unde acutum oportet habere sensum ad intelligendum. Explicit.”
St. John’s 85, close of 13th century, “Constantini africani Pantegnus in duas partes divisus quarum prima dicitur Theorica continens decem libros secunda dicitur Practica 33 capita continens,” as a table of contents written in on the fly-leaf states. The ten books of theory end at fol. 100r, “Explicit prima pars pantegni scilicet de theorica. Incipit secunda pars scilicet practica et est primus liber de regimento sanitatis.” This single book in 33 chapters on the preservation of health ends at fol. 116v, and at fol. 117r begins the Liber divisionum of Rasis. p. 748
- 2979 In Berlin 898, a 12th century MS of Stephen’s translation of Ali’s Practica, this ninth section by Constantinus and John is for some reason substituted for the corresponding book of Stephen. p. 748
- 2980 He calls himself, “iohannes quidam agarenus (Saracenus?) quondam, qui noviter ad fidem christiane religionis venerat cum rustico pisano belle filius ac professione medicus.” p. 748
- 2981 The main objection to this theory is that Stephen of Pisa, translating in 1127, speaks as if the latter portion of Ali’s work was still untranslated. Rose therefore holds that John had not yet published his translation, although we have seen that he completed the surgical section by 1115. p. 749
Viaticum.
Perhaps the next best known and the most frequently printed2982 of Constantinus’ translations or adaptations from the Arabic is his Viaticum which, as Peter the Deacon states, is divided into seven books. In the preface Constantinus states that the Pantegni was for more advanced students, this is a brief manual for others. He also adds that he appends his own name to it because there are persons who profit by the labors of others and, “when the work of someone else has come into their hands, furtively and like thieves inscribe their own names.” Daremberg designated Abu Jafar Ahmed Ibn-al-Jezzar as author of the Arabic original of the Viaticum. Moses Ibn Tibbon, who made a Hebrew translation in 1259, criticized the Latin version of Constantinus as often abbreviated, obscure, and seriously altered in arrangement.2983 Constantinus seems to be alluded to in the Ephodia or Greek version of the same work.2984
- 2982 In Opera omnia ysaac, Lyons, 1515, II, fols. 144-72, “Viaticum ysaac quod constantinus sibi attribuit”; in the Basel, 1536, edition of the works of Constantinus, pp. 1-167, under the title, “De morborum cognitione et curatione lib. vii”; in the Venice, 1505, edition of Gerardus de Solo (Bituricensis), “Commentum eiusdem super viatico cum textu”; and in the Lyons, 1511, edition of Rhazes, Opera parva Albubetri.
A fairly early but imperfect MS is CU Trinity 1064, 12-13th century.
Laud. Misc. 567, late 12th century, fol. 2, recognizes in its Titulus that the Viaticum is a translation, “Incipit Viaticum a Constantino in Latinam linguam translatam.” p. 749
- 2983 Steinschneider (1866), 368-9. p. 749
- 2984 See above, page 745, note 2. p. 749
Other translations.
If neither the original of the Pantegni nor of the Viaticum is to be assigned to Isaac, Constantinus nevertheless did translate some of his works, namely, those on diets, urines, and fevers.2985 Moreover, Constantinus himself admits that these Latin works are translations, stating in the preface to the treatise on urines that, finding no satisfactory treatment of the subject in Latin, he turned to the Arabic language and translated the work which Isaac had compiled from the ancients. Constantinus also states that he translated the treatise on fevers from the Arabic. We have already seen that the alphabetical Latin version of Dioscorides which had most currency in the middle ages is ascribed in at least one manuscript to Constantinus. He also translated some treatises ascribed to Hippocrates and Galen, such as Galen’s commentary on the Aphorisms and Prognostics of Hippocrates2986 and the Tegni of Galen. Constantinus has also been credited with translating works of Galen on the eyes, on diseases of women, and on human nature, but these are not genuine works of Galen.
- 2985 In the 1515 edition of Isaac’s works, I, 11-, 156-, and 203-. Peter the Deacon presumably refers to these three works in speaking of “Dietam ciborum. Librum febrium quem de Arabica lingua transtulit. Librum de urinis.” Whether the two initial treatises in the 1515 edition of Isaac, dealing with definitions and the elements, were translated by Constantinus or by Gerard of Cremona is doubtful. p. 750
- 2986 See CLM 187, fol. 8; 168, fol. 23; 161, fol. 41; 270, fol. 10; 13034, fol. 49, for 13-14th century copies of Galen’s commentary upon the Aphorisms of Hippocrates with a preface by Constantinus.
University College Oxford 89, early 14th century, fol. 90, Incipiunt amphorismi Ypocratis cum commento domini Constantini Affricani montis Cassienensis monachi; fol. 155, Eiusdem Prognostica cum Galeni commento, eodem interprete; fols. 203-61, Eiusdem liber de regimine acutorum cum eiusdem commento eodem interprete. p. 750
The book of degrees.
In his list of the works which Constantinus translated from various languages.2987 Peter the Deacon includes The book of degrees, but it has not yet been discovered from what earlier author, if any, it is copied or adapted. The work is a development of Galen’s doctrine that various p. 751 medicinal simples are hot or cold, dry or moist, in varying degrees. Constantinus presupposes four gradations of this sort. Thus a food or medicine is hot in the first degree if its heating power is below that of the normal human body; if it is of the same temperature as the body, it ranks as of the second degree; if its heat is somewhat greater than that of the body, it is of the third degree; if its heat is extreme and unbearable, it is of the fourth degree. The rose is cold in the first degree, is dry towards the end of the second degree, while the violet is cold towards the end of the first degree and moist in the beginning of the second degree. Thus Constantinus distinguishes not only four degrees but a beginning, middle and end of each degree, and Peter the Deacon once gives the title of the work as The book of twelve degrees.2988 This interesting though crude beginning in the direction of scientific thermometry and hydrometry unfortunately rested upon incorrect assumptions as to the nature and causation of heat and moisture, and so was perhaps destined to do more harm than good.
- 2987 De viris illustribus, cap. 23, “ ... transtulit de diversis gentium linguis libros quamplurimos in quibus praecipue ...”: Chronica, Lib. III, “ ... transtulit de diversorum gentium linguis libros quamplurimos in quibus sunt hi praecipue....” p. 750
- 2988 “Librum duodecim graduum” in De viris illus.: in the Chronicle, “Liber graduum.” p. 751
On melancholy.
A glossary of herbs and species and a work on the pulse, which Peter the Deacon includes in both his lists of Constantinus’ works or translations, do not seem to have been printed or identified as Constantinus’. On the other hand, the printed edition of the works of Constantinus includes treatises on melancholy and on the stomach2989 which are not mentioned in Peter’s list. In a preface to the De melancholia which is not included in the printed edition2990 Constantinus Africanus speaks of himself as a monk of Monte Cassino and states that, while he has often touched on the disease of melancholy in the many medical books which he has added to the Latin language, he has decided also to write a separate brochure on the subject because it is an important malady and because it is especially prevalent “in these regions.” “Therefore I have collected this booklet from p. 752 many volumes of our adepts in this art.” Whether the word “our” here refers to Greek or Arabic writers would be hard to say. Constantinus states that melancholy is a disease to which those are especially liable who are always intent on study and books of philosophy, “because of their scientific investigations and tiring their memories and grieving over the failure of their minds.” This ailment also afflicts “those who lose their beloved possessions, such as their children and dearest friends or some precious thing which cannot be restored, as when scholars suddenly lose their books.” Constantinus also describes the melancholy of “many religious persons who live lives to be revered, but fall into this disease from their fear of God and contemplation of the last judgment and desire of seeing the summum bonum. Such persons think of nothing and seek for nothing save to love and fear God alone, and they incur this complaint and become drunk as it were with their excessive anxiety and vanity.”2991 Such passages would seem to describe Constantinus’ own associates and environment, but they may possibly be a mere translation of some work of an earlier Christian Arab, such as Honein ben Ishak who translated or pretended to translate a number of works of Greek medicine into Arabic. In a later chapter2992 we shall find that Honein perhaps had something to do with another work called The Secrets of Galen, in which remedies for religious ascetics who have ruined their health by their austerities form a rather prominent feature.
On disorders of the stomach.
That the treatise on disorders of the stomach is Constantinus’ own work is indicated by its preface, which is addressed to Alfanus, archbishop of Salerno from 1058 to 1087 and earlier a monk of Monte Cassino. Alfanus had himself translated Nemesius Περὶ φύσεως ἀνθρώπου2993 and was the center of a group of learned writers: the dialectician, Alberic the Deacon, the historian, Amatus of Salerno, and p. 753 the mathematician and astronomer, Pandulf of Capua.2994 Constantinus states that he writes this treatise for Alfanus as a compensation for his recent failure to relieve a stomach—ache with which that prelate was afflicted. Such instances of self-confessed failure, be it noted in passing, are rare indeed in ancient and medieval medicine, and for this reason we are the more inclined to deal charitably with the charges of literary plagiarism which have been preferred against Constantinus. He goes on to say that he has sought with great care but in vain among ancient writings for any treatise devoted exclusively to the stomach, and has only succeeded in finding here and there scattered discussions which he now presumably combines in the present special treatise.
Medical works ascribed to Alfanus.
This archbishop Alfanus appears to have written on medicine himself, since A treatise of Alfanus of Salerno concerning certain medical questions was listed among the books at Christchurch, Canterbury about 1300.2995 Also a collection of recipes entitled, Experiments of an archbishop of Salerno, in a manuscript of the early twelfth century are very likely by him.2996 They follow a treatise on melancholy which does not, however, appear to be that of Constantinus Africanus.2997
Constantinus and experiment.
Peter the Deacon’s bibliography of the works of Constantinus includes a De experimentis which, if extant, has not been identified as Constantinus’. In such works of his as are available, however, we find a number of mentions of experience and its value. It is of course to be remembered that such expressions as “we state what we have tested and what our authorities have used,”2998 and “we have had personal experience of the confection which we now mention,”2999 may refer to the experience of the past authors p. 754 whose works Constantinus is using or translating rather than to his own. In the Pantegni3000 “ancient medical writers” are divided into experientes and rationabiles, and we are told that the empirics declare that compound medicines can be discovered only in dreams and by chance, while the rationalists hold that these can be deduced from a knowledge of the virtues and qualities and accidents of bodies and diseases. This much is of course simply Galen over again. Constantinus occasionally gives medical “experiments,” as in the case of “proved experiments to eject reptiles from the body,”3001 or the placing of a live chicken on the place bitten by a mad dog. The chicken will then die while the man will be cured “beyond a doubt.”3002 Such medical “experiments” by Constantinus were often cited by subsequent medieval writers.
“Experiments” involving incantations.
Incantations are involved in some of these “experiments.” One approved experiment, we are told, consists in whispering in the ear of the patient the words, Recede demon quia dee fanolcri precipiunt. The effect of this procedure is that when the epileptic rises, after remaining like one dead for an hour, he will answer any question that may be put to him. Another experiment to cure epilepsy is frequently cited by subsequent medieval medical writers from Constantinus, and, while it may not have originated with him, is apparently of Christian rather than Greek or Mohammedan origin. If the epileptic has parents living, they are to take him to church on the day of the four seasons and have him hear mass on the sixth day and also on Saturday. When he comes again on Sunday the priest is to write down the passage in the Gospel where it says, “This kind is not cast out save by fasting and prayer.” Presumably the epileptic is to wear this writing, in which case a sure cure is promised, “be he epileptic or lunatic or demoniac.” But it is added that the charm will not work in the case of persons born of incestuous marriages.3003
- 3003 Ibid., V, 17; fol. 99r. p. 754
Superstition comparatively rare in Constantinus.
But as a rule incantations and superstitious ceremony are comparatively rare in the works of Constantinus, which contain little to justify the charge of magic said to have been made against him in Africa or the charge of superstition made against the Arabic medicine which his writings so largely reflect. Also these superstitious passages seem limited to the treatment of certain ailments of a mysterious character like epilepsy and insanity, which, Constantinus says, the populace call divinatio and account for by possession by demons.3004 It is against epilepsy and phantasy that it is recommended to give a child to swallow before it has been weaned the brains of a goat drawn through a golden ring. And it is for epilepsy that we find such suspensions as hairs from an entirely white dog or the small red stones in swallows’ gizzards, from which they must have been removed at midday. When Constantinus is treating of eye and ear troubles, or even of paralysis of the tongue and toothache, use of amulets is infrequent and there is only an occasional suggestion of marvelous virtue. Gout is treated with unguents and recipes but without the superstitious ligatures often found in medieval works of medicine.3005 Parts of animals are employed a good deal: thus if you anoint the entire body with lion fat, you will have no fear of serpents, and binding on the head the fresh lung of an ox is good for frenzy.3006 But Constantinus more often explains the action of things in nature from their four qualities of hot, cold, moist, and dry, than he does by assuming the existence of occult virtues.
And of Greek rather than Arabic origin.
It is also to be noted that those passages where Constantinus’ medicine borders most closely upon magic are apt to be borrowed from, or at least credited to, Galen and Dioscorides. Neither Constantinus nor his Arabic authorities introduced most of these superstitious elements into medicine. In his work on degrees Constantinus repeats p. 756 Galen’s story of the boy who fell into an epileptic fit whenever the suspended peony was removed from his neck.3007 In the Viaticum3008 he ascribes the suspension of a white dog’s hairs and the use of various other parts of animals for epileptics to Dioscorides, but they do not seem to be found in that author’s extant works. Water in which blacksmiths have quenched their irons is another remedy prescribed for various disorders upon the authority of Dioscorides and Galen.3009 Theriac and terra sigillata are of course not forgotten. That there is a magnetic mountain on the shore of the Indian Ocean which draws all the iron nails out of passing ships, and that the magnet extracts arrows from wounds is stated on the authority of the Lapidary of Aristotle, a spurious work. Constantinus adds that Rufus says that the magnet comforts those afflicted with melancholy and removes their fears and suspicions.3010 However, it is without citation of other authors that Constantinus states that the plant agnus castus will mortify lust if it is merely suspended over the sleeper.3011
- 3007 Ed. of 1536, p. 358; also in the Viaticum, I, 22; p. 20. p. 756
- 3008 Viaticum, I, 22; p. 21. p. 756
- 3009 Viaticum, VII, 13: De gradibus (1536), p. 377. p. 756
- 3010 According to Steinschneider (1866), p. 402, it is only from the citations of Constantinus that we know of a work by Rufus on melancholy. See especially De melancholia (1536), p. 285, “Invenimus Rufum clarissimum medicum de melancholia fecisse librum....” p. 756
- 3011 De gradibus (1536), p. 378. p. 756
Some signs of astrology and alchemy.
There is not a great deal of astrological medicine in the works of Constantinus Africanus. There are some allusions to the moon and dog-days,3012 Galen being twice cited to the effect that epilepsy in a waxing moon is a very moist disease, while in a waning moon it is very cold. In a chapter of the Pantegni3013 the relation of critical days to the course of the moon and also to the nature of number is discussed. In another passage of the same work3014 we read that if other remedies fail in the case of a patient who cannot hold his water while in bed, he should eat the bladder of a river fish for eight days while the moon is waxing and waning p. 757 and he will be freed from the complaint. But Hippocrates testifies that in old men the ailment is incurable. But the principal astrological passage that I have found in the works of Constantinus is that in De humana natura3015 where he traces the formation of the child in the womb and the influence of the planets upon the successive months of the process, and explains why children born in the seventh or ninth month live while those born in the eighth month die. This passage was cited by Vincent of Beauvais in his Speculum naturale.3016 Belief in alchemy is suggested when Constantinus repeats the assertion of some book on stones that lead would be silver except for its smell, its softness, and its inability to endure fire.3017
- 3012 Edition of 1536, pp. 20, 290, 356. p. 756
- 3013 Theorica, X, 9; ed. of 1515, fol. 54. p. 756
- 3014 Practica, VII, 59 (1515), fol. 114v. p. 756
- 3015 Ed. of 1541, pp. 319-21. p. 757
- 3016 Spec. nat., XVI, 49. p. 757
- 3017 De gradibus (1536), p. 360, “de quo Arabū (Aristotle?) in libro de lapidibus intitulato.” p. 757
Constantinus and the School of Salerno.
The relation of Constantinus Africanus to the School of Salerno has been the subject of much dispute and of divergent views. Some have held that Salerno’s medical importance practically began with him; others have tried to maintain for Salernitan medicine a Neo-Latin character quite distinct from Constantinus’ introduction of Arabic influence. From the fact that Constantinus passed from Salerno to Monte Cassino, where most, if not all, of his writing seems to have been done, it has been assumed that there was an intimate connection between the monks and the rise of a medical school at Salerno. On the other hand, Renzi and Rashdall have ridiculed the notion, declaring the distance and difficulty of communication between the two places to be an insurmountable difficulty. It must be remembered, however, that Constantinus himself both attended the archbishop of Salerno in a case of stomach trouble and sent a treatise on the subject to him afterwards. A strong personal influence by him upon the practice and still more upon the literature of Salernitan medicine is therefore not precluded, though his stay at Salerno may have been brief and his literary labor performed entirely p. 758 at the monastery. In any case a Master John Afflacius, who is associated with other Salernitan writers in a compilation from their works, was a disciple of Constantinus and, as we are about to see, perhaps the author of some of the treatises which have been published under Constantinus’ name. It certainly would seem that Constantinus and his disciple have as good a right to be called Salernitan as most of the authors included in Renzi’s collection.
Liber aureus and John Afflacius.
In a medical manuscript which Henschel discovered at Breslau in 18373018 and which he regarded as a composition of the School of Salerno and dated in the twelfth century, he found in the case of two works compiled from various authors3019 that the passages ascribed to a Master John Afflacius, who was described as “a disciple of Constantinus,”3020 were identical with passages in the Liber aureus or De remediorum et aegritudinum cognitione published as a work of Constantinus in the Basel edition of 1536. He also identified a Liber urinarum attributed to the same John Afflacius, disciple of Constantinus, in the Breslau manuscript with the De urinis which follows the Liber aureus in the printed edition of Constantinus’ works. Thus either the pupil appropriated or completed and published the work of his master, or Constantinus had the same good fortune in having his own name attached to the compositions of his pupil3021 as in the case of the writings of his Arabic predecessors.
- 3018 Manoscritto Salernitano dilucidato dal Prof. Henschel, in Renzi (1853), II, 1-80, especially pp. 16, 41, 59. p. 758
- 3019 De aegritudinum curatione tractatus, Renzi, II, 81-386; De febribus tractatus, II, 737-68. p. 758
- 3020 The preface to Constantinus’ translation of Isaac on fevers is addressed to his “dearest son, John”: see Brussels, Library of Dukes of Burgundy 15489, 14th century, “Quoniam te karissime fili Iohanne”; Cambrai 914, 13-14th century; Cambrai 907, 14th century, fol. 1, Prefatio Constantini ad Johannem discipulum. p. 758
- 3021 However, in an Oxford MS the Liber aureus itself is ascribed to “John, son of Constantinus”: Bodleian 2060, #1, Joannis filii Constantini de re medica liber aureus. p. 758
Afflacius more superstitious than his master.
It may be further noted that the disciple seems to have been more superstitious than the master, for in one of the passages ascribed to Afflacius in the aforesaid compilation, p. 759 after the correspondence with the Liber aureus has ceased, the text goes on to prescribe the suspension of goat’s horn over one’s head as a soporific and gives the following “prognostic of life or death.” Smear the forehead of the patient from ear to ear with musam eneam. “If he sleeps, he will live; but if not, he will die; and this has been tested in acute fevers.” Another method is to try if the patient’s urine will mix with the milk of a woman who is suckling a male child. If it will, he will live. Another procedure to induce sleep is then given, which consists in reading the first verse of the Gospel of John nine times over the patient’s head, placing beneath his head a missal or psalter and the names of the seven sleepers written on a scroll. This is not the first instance of such Christian magic that we have encountered in connection with the School of Salerno and we begin to suspect that it was rather characteristic. At any rate it was not uncommon in medieval medicine in general and was almost certainly introduced before Innocent III who in 1215 forbade ordeals and who frowned on other superstitious practices. Probably such Christian magic dates from a period before Arabic influence began to be felt. Thus again we have reason to doubt whether early medieval medicine or Salernitan medicine was less superstitious than Arabic medicine or than medieval medicine after the introduction of Arabic medicine. At least Constantinus Africanus who represents the introduction of translations from the Arabic is comparatively free from superstition.