Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T23:19:24.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Otolaryngological treatments in hagiographical Byzantine texts (324–1453 A.D.): miracles or reality?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2007

John Lascaratos*
Affiliation:
Departments of History of Medicine and Otorhinolaryngology, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
E. Poulacou-Rebelacou
Affiliation:
Athens Spata National Medical Centre, Athens, Greece.
John Yiotakis
Affiliation:
Departments of History of Medicine and Otorhinolaryngology, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
*
Address for correspondence: Dr John Lascaratos, M.D., Hippocratous 164b str., Athens 11471, Greece. Fax: 00301 7796745

Abstract

Hagiographical texts of the Byzantine period contain a significant number of miraculous treatments of several diseases of the ear, nose and throat. The comparison of the conservative treatments referred to as well as the often concealed surgical interventions of these texts with those known from the medical texts of the eminent Byzantine physicians, lead the writers to conclude that a series of real treatments were carried out in the churches or in the Xenones (hospitals) of Byzantium.

Type
Historical Article
Copyright
Copyright © JLO (1984) Limited 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Briau, R. (1855) Chirurgie de Paul D'Égine. Masson, V., Paris, pp 140168.Google Scholar
Codellas, P. (1942) The Pantocrator. The Imperial Byzantine medical centre of Xllth century. A.D. in Constantinople. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 12: 392410.Google Scholar
Dagron, G. (1978) Vie et miracles de Sainte Thècle. Société des Bollandistes, Bruxelles, p 398.Google Scholar
Dawes, E., Baynes, N. H. (1948) Three Byzantine Saints. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 6162.Google Scholar
Delehaye, H. (1923) Les Saints Stylites. Société des Bollandistes, Bruxelles, pp 8384, 226227.Google Scholar
Den Ven Van, P. (1962) La Vie Ancienne de S. Syméon Stylite le Jeune (521592). Vol I. Société des Bollandistes, Bruxelles, pp 41–218.Google Scholar
Festugière, A.-J. (1970) Vie de Théodore le Sykéôn. Société des Bollandistes, Bruxelles, pp 5587, 128129.Google Scholar
Guthrie, D. (1944) Early records of tracheotomy. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 15: 5964.Google Scholar
Kühn, C. G. (1826) Claudii Galeni Opera Ommia. Vol. XII. C. Cnobloch, Lipsiae, pp 601605.Google Scholar
Lascaratos, J. (1996) Otorhinolaryngological diseases in Byzantium (A.D. 324–1453): information from non-medical literary sources. Journal of Laryngology and Otology 110: 913917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laurent, V. (1956) La Vie Merveilleuse de Saint Pierre d'Atroa. Société des Bollandistes, Bruxelles, pp 105210.Google Scholar
Laurent, V. (1958) La Vita Retractata et les Miracles Posthumes de Saint Pierre d'Atroa. Société des Bollandistes, Bruxelles, pp 161162.Google Scholar
Magoulias, H. (1964) The lives of the Saints as sources of data for the history of Byzantine medicine in the sixth and seventh centuries. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 57: 127150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marketos, S., Fronimopoulos, J., Lascaratos, J. (1989) The treatment of eye diseases in the Asclepieia. Documenta Ophthalmologica 71: 155165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Migne, P. (ed.) (1868) Vita eutychii patriarchae. Patrologia Graeca 86: 23282329.Google Scholar
Milne, J. S. (1976) Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times. Ares Publishers, Chicago, pp 6364.Google Scholar
Neuburger, M. (1910) History of Medicine. Frowde, Hodder and Stoughton, London, pp 274275, 299313.Google Scholar
Nicodemos, A. (1974) New Eklogion. Aster, Athens, pp 171172.Google Scholar
Noret, J. (1982) Vitae Duae Antiquae Sancti Athanasii Athonitae. Leuven University Press, Brepols-Turnhout, pp 118119, 203204.Google Scholar
Olivieri, A. (1950) Aetii Amideni Libri Medicinales V-VIII. Aedibus Academiae Literarum, Berlin, pp 221249, 454502.Google Scholar
Papadopolous-Kerameus, A. (1897) Synopsis of the Miracles of the Saint Eugenius Written by John Lazaropoulos Metropolitan Bishop of Trapezous. Fontes Historiae Imperii Trapezuntini, St Petersburg, pp 111113.Google Scholar
Puschmann, T. (1963) Alexander von Tralles. II. Band. A. M. Hakkert, Amsterdam, pp 79145.Google Scholar
Raeder, I. (1933) Oribasii collectionum medicarum reliquiae. Vol. IV. In Corpus Medicorum Graecorum, Teubner, B. Leipzig and Berlin, pp 188194.Google Scholar
Rupprecht, E. (1935) Cosmae et Damiani Sanctrorum Medicorum Vitam et Miracula. Junker und Dünnhaupt, Berlin, pp 8182.Google Scholar
Sarcologos, É. (1964) La vie de Saint Cyrille le Philéote moine Byzantin (1110). Société des Bollandistes, Bruxelles, pp 263264.Google Scholar
Weir, N. (1990) Otolaryngology. An Illustrated History. Butterworths, London, p 14.Google Scholar