Byzantine Links Between Ancient Medical Knowledge and Modern Formularies: Theophanes’ Synopsis de remediis and its manuscripts

Theophanes (flourished around 950) is the only author known and mentioned by medical history books representing 10th-century Byzantine medicine. He wrote one more extensive work, the Epitome de curatione morborum (A Summary of Treatments) that was extremely popular in the Byzantine era, and two shorter ones, the De alimentis (On food) and the Synopsis de remediis (A Summary of Medications). Only recently the subject of academic attentions, the Synopsis, an important text in the transmission of Greek medical knowledge in the Middle Ages, exists in thirty-two manuscripts, but it has never been published. The Synopsis is a precursor of early Modern and even present-day formularies; its history demonstrates how the canonization of medical drug collections evolved into these so-called pharmacopoeias, that is the official term even today for national and supranational pharmaceutical reference works for drug substances and formulated preparations..

In this presentation, Nora Zergi will introduce us to her PhD-project on Theophanes, the manuscripts of the Synopsis, and how, using her medical training and philological background, she will approach this fascinating collection.