An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

MARCELLUS EMPIRICUS, (Marcellus Burdigalensis)

2 entries
  • 10961

De medicamentis empiricis physicis ac rationalibus liber.... Edited by Janus Cornarius. Item Claudii Galeni libri novem nunc primum Latini facti.... Jani Cornarii.

Basel: Hieronymus Froben, 1536.

The Gallo-Roman physician Marcellus was born in Bordeaux. He may have served as magister officiorum under Theodosius I, or may have been royal physician. Sarton (Introduction to the history of science I, 391) considered his work "an extrordinary mixture of traditional knowledge, popular (Celtic) medicine, and rank superstition. Interesting also for the historian of botany because of the great number of plants mentioned."

For this edition "Cornarius worked from a manuscript written in the mid-9th century that was superior to the one used for the Teubner edition of 1889 but which was thought to have been lost; it was rediscovered in 1913 and used for the 1916 edition of Marcellus published in Teubner's Corpus Medicorum Latinorum series. Referred to as the Codex Parisinus, it contains Cornarius's corrections and marginal notes" (Wikipedia article on Janus Cornarius).

The writings by Galen in this edition are: De causis respirationis liber 1, De utilitate respirationis, liber 1, De difficultate respirations libri III, De uteri dissectione liber 1, De foetus formatione liber 1, De semine libri II.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: ANCIENT MEDICINE › Late Antiquity, ANCIENT MEDICINE › Roman Empire, EMBRYOLOGY, Magic & Superstition in Medicine, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS › Materia medica / Herbals / Herbal Medicines, RESPIRATION
  • 8330

Marcelli De medicamentis liber. Edited Georgius Helmreich.

Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1889.

Marcellus's compendium of pharmacological preparations drawing on the work of multiple medical and scientific writers as well as folk remedies and magic. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: ANCIENT MEDICINE › Late Antiquity, ANCIENT MEDICINE › Roman Empire, PHARMACOLOGY › PHARMACEUTICALS, TRADITIONAL, Folk or Indigenous Medicine