Lecture 16th Century Italian and Greek Magical Medical Manuscripts

Dr. Danilo Valentino of the University of Hamburg, Centre for Manuscript Cultures, will be giving a public lecture on Thursday October 20 on: 16th century Italian and Greek magical medical manuscripts.

The title of the lecture is: A Kind of Magic: Iatrosophia and iatromagic recipes as therapy in Medieval and Early-Modern Greece

The iatrosophia are collections of medical recipes, which were widely disseminated during the late Byzantine era. Written in a sort of early Modern Greek, these works were intended for practical usage and have rarely been the object of thorough investigation; by analysing them, it is possible to readjust the relevant role of popular medicine in medieval Greek culture and to widen our perception of "practical-use literature" (Gebrauchsliteratur) in that society and in the following centuries. Significant samples of iatrosophia are Ms. Taur. B.VII.18 from the Turin National Library and Ms. Panor. XIII.C.3 from the Sicilian Regional Library of Palermo. These manuscripts belong to 16th century are collections of remedies for common illnesses based on the classical medical tradition, with the Pseudo-Galenic work De remediis parabilibus and Epitome de curatione morborum by Theophanes Nonnos as their main sources. In them an important role is played by iatromagic prescriptions and, among others, amulets, magic salts or spells for common problems are part of their therapy. The goal of this paper is to present different kinds of iatromagic remedies occurring in these and other iatrosophia, with the intention of offering hints to the cultural contexts, where they come from.

Thursday October 20
17:30-18:30
2060 Mackay
room 202