Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:04:16.211Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ‘Humidum Radicale’ in Thirteenth-Century Medicine*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Michael McVaugh
Michael McVaugh*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A number of recently published studies have drawn attention to the ‘radical moisture,’ a concept developed in classical antiquity and the Middle Ages to help explain the nature of life and the occurrence of aging and of fevers. These studies have examined the broad history of the concept over a span of two thousand years; they have, however, not presented in detail the sequence of the transmission and evolution of the concept in the Middle Ages. It is my intent to focus upon the history of the radical-moisture concept in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, to try to establish the particular stages by which it entered medieval medical doctrine, and in particular to examine the importance of Avicenna's Canon for western physicians in consolidating their first disorganized impressions of the concept. I shall illustrate the stages in the transmission process by referring to the use of the concept at the University of Montpellier, for that school has left us a number of texts from the thirteenth century that reveal how the introduction of new Arabic or Greek medical works could alter the medieval academic physician's approach to a familiar topic; they also reveal the way in which personal tastes and interests could lead colleagues to react differently to new materials.

Type
Articles
Information
Traditio , Volume 30 , 1974 , pp. 259 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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

1 Pagel, Walter, William Harvey's Biological Ideas (New York 1967) 257–260; Hall, Thomas S., ‘Life, Death and the Radical Moisture,’ Clio Medica 6 (1971) 3-23; Niebyl, Peter H., ‘Old Age, Fever, and the Lamp Metaphor,’ Journal of the History of Medicine 26 (1971) 351-368.Google Scholar

2 Printed as Liber febrium Ysaac israelite, in Omnia Opera Ysaac (Lyons 1515) (I) fols. 203v-226v; see especially pars I cap. iii and pars III.Google Scholar

3 Printed as Liber Galieni ad Glauconem, in Galieni Opera (Venice 1490) fols. 445-458v (the folios of this edition are not actually numbered); this corresponds to Ad Glauconem de medendi methodo in Opera Omnia Galeni (ed. Kuhn, C. G.; Leipzig 1821-33) XI. 1–146.Google Scholar

4 Liber febrium fol. 208 (misfoliated 198ra).Google Scholar

5 ‘Unum est quo humectatio desiccatur que in parvis venis habetur unicuique membro pertinentibus … et hec vocatur phthysis absoluta; secundum est quo humectatio finitur que in teneris est carnibus, et incipit calor ab humectatione que in membris est similibus que humectatio est sicut ros aut aeris umbra, hec est que vocatur ethica consumptiva; tertium est in quo hec humectatio finitur, et illa humectatio incipit calefieri que in coniunctionibus est fundamenti cuiuslibet membri, que vocatur phthysis et consummatio,’ Pantegni lib. VIII theorice, cap. vii; in Opera Ysaac (II) fol. 37vb. ‘Haly Abbas’ work was retranslated by Stephen of Antioch about 1125 under the title Liber regalis: in this translation, this passage reads ‘Prima est in qua que in venis est parvis humiditas consumitur que cuique sunt proprie membro … vocaturque huiusmodi febris absolute ethica. Secunda est in qua humiditas que in carne est tenera finitur; incipitque calor in humiditate que in consimilibus partibus est membris; que tanquam ros et humectatio est et ex qua hec pascuntur membra; vocaturque huiusmodi febris ethica consumptiva. Tertia sequitur species in qua hac consumpta humiditate transit ad illam per quam radicalia adinvicem continuantur membra; vocaturque febris hec çonsumptio marcor et ptisis’. Liber regalis lib. VIII theorice cap. vii; in Haly Abbas, Liber totius medicine (Lyons 1523) fol. 95r-v. The somewhat different language could only have heightened the terminological difficulties that we will meet immediately below.Google Scholar

6 ‘Unum est in vasis sanguineis et in venis humorum existens, et dicitur rosaceus; secundum est humiditas in membrorum concavitate in quibus nondum natura perfecit tertiam digestionem, et dicitur cambium; tertium est substantialis humiditas qua reguntur et custodiuntur membra que in vasis sanguineis existit, et dicitur gluten sive humiditas spermatica.’ Ibid. lib. III practice, cap. xviii; Opera Ysaac, (II) fol. 88rb. I have not met a counterpart of this passage in the translation by Stephen of Antioch; his version of this book is arranged rather differently from Constantine's.Google Scholar

7 Methodus medendi, lib. X; Kuhn X 661-733.Google Scholar

8 Printed as Megatechni seu de ingenio sanitatis libri Galieni in Opera Ysaac (II) fols. 189v-210.Google Scholar

9 The passage quoted below in n. 14 reads as follows in Constantine's version: ‘Qui vero ad phthysim venire incipiunt nullum errorem vel negligentiam ferre possunt, quia passio corum molestissima est, et siccitas et consumptio carnem transeunt, et ducta est ad fundamenta membrorum, etiam usque ad pelliculas et chordas et ligamenta et nervos et ossa.’ Megatechni decima particula; Opera Ysaac (II) fol. 201va-b .Google Scholar

10 ‘ Oportet nos ergo festinanter ethicas refrigerare et humefacere priusquam ad phthysim veniant, quia postquam phthysim inciderint nequaquam eos curamus. Nam etsi possumus eos refrigerare, siccitas tamen consumit eos, sicut videmus senes senium consumere.’ Ibid. fol. 201rb. Footnotes 12 and 13 give two twelfth-century translations of this same passage.Google Scholar

11 On the translations of the Methodus medendi, see Durling, Richard J., ‘Corrigenda and Addenda to Diels' Galenica,’ Traditio 23 (1967) 474–475. I have used Burgundio's translation as given in Galieni Opera (1490) fols. 383-437; Gerard's as given in MS Vat. Lat. 2375.Google Scholar

12 ‘Quapropter festinandum est ut infrigidentur qui [MS quam] in ptisim incidant et moriantur; set si ptisim habeat, cave ne ipsos presumas medicari, nam etsi calorem eorum refrigerabis, siccitas tamen que in solidis membris remanet eos occidit.’ De ingenio sanitatis lib. X; MS Vat. Lat. 2375 fol. 377rb .Google Scholar

13 ‘… Infrigidamus igitur omnimodo ethicas febres confestim antequam devenientes in marasmum id est tabem moriantur, eum autem qui certissime marasmatus id est tabefactus est, neque tentabimus sanare; etsi enim calorem eius extinxerimus, sed siccitas derelicta senectutis modo hominem perficit tanto vixurum tempore quanto resistent solide particule [ed.: solidis particulis] ad ultimam siccitatem.’ De ingenio sanitatis lib. X; Opera (1490) fol. 419rb. Cf. Kuhn X 720.15 – 721.3.Google Scholar

14 ‘ Solidis autem ipsis desiccatis impossibile est hominem sanari finaliter, sed necessarium est vel demum ex ipsa febri mortem venire confestim vel transcendere eo in marasmum vocatum ex egritudine senectus. Nam primum quidem hec talis febris devorat familiarem ikmada [ed.: iomada] (id est humiditatem) particularem a qua nutriuntur, transit autem hinc ad carnosum genus quod in nubis id est in villis et membranosis solidarum particularum est circuminnatum; deinde ita tangit et ipsas solidas particulas.’ De ingenio sanitatis lib. X cap. xi; Opera (1490) fol. 419vb. Compare the Greek text in Kuhn X 729.18 – 730.8 — where, it should be noted, the word marasmus is missing.Google Scholar

In Gerard's translation, the same passage reads: ‘Eorum tamen qui hanc passionem evadunt consumatio non est nisi in carne que si fuerant non perfecta poterit sanari, cum autem velociter moriantur aut in decrepitam ptisim incidant. Hec namque febris primiter consumit humiditatem membrorum qua nutriuntur, deinde carnem que solidis membris est commixta, tandem mutatur ad pelliculas novissime ad ipsa membra que similia vocantur, quorum alia sunt quasi ligamentum et pili. Alia sunt sicut pellicule, quedam vero sicut caro.’ De ingenio sanitatis lib. X; MS Vat. Lat. 2375 fol. 377vb .Google Scholar

15 Printed as Liber de differentiis febrium in Opera (1490) fols. 437v-445; see in particular lib. I capp. viii-ix (cf. Kuhn VII especially pp. 313ff.).Google Scholar

16 ‘ Eas [febres] autem iam que ex ipsis in marasmum id est in tabem devenerunt inscitia [ed.: in scientia] preexistentium medicorum non solum non facile sed neque est possibile sanare, consistentes demum iam certissime et non adhuc incipientes. Natura denique earum est sicca et calida, simile quid patiente corde quale utique carbo licinii in lucerna cum quam-plurimum combusta fuerit; frangitur enim quod ita frictum est et dissolvitur et continuitatem deperdit ab ariditate, ut neque si superinfundas oleum, reaccendere possis flammam sufficientem; circumpalpitat igitur in egro parva et imbecillis flamma semper et magis minor fit donec extinguatur.’ Ibid., lib. I, cap. viii; Opera (1490) fols. 439v-440 (Kuhn VII 314).Google Scholar

17 Liber canonis Avicenne (Venice 1507; reprinted Hildesheim 1964): lib. I fen 1 doct. iv cap. 1 — Quid sit humor et eius divisiones (fols. 4v-6); lib. I fen 3 doct. iii capitulum singulare — De causis sanitatis et egritudinis et necessitatis mortis (fols. 52v-53); lib. IV fen 1 tract. iii cap. 1 — De ethica (fols. 413v-414). On Avicenna, see Hall, , ‘Radical Moisture’ especially pp. 4-8.Google Scholar

18 ‘Una est humor in foraminibus extremitatum parvarum venarum contentus membris simplicibus propinquarum inbibentium earn. Alia est humor per omnia simplicibus transiens membra, sicut ros qui in nutrimentum converti est aptus cum corpus nutrimento caret, et ut membra humectet cum aliqua causa fortis motus aut alia ea exiccaverit. Tertia est humor qui parum ante congelatus fuit, et est nutrimentum quod in substantia membrorum ex parte complexionis conversum est. Sed ex parte essentie complete et similitudinis nondum conversum fuit. Quarta est humor qui est intus in membris simplicibus a principio nativitatis per quem partium eorum continuitas existit, cuius principium est ex spermate. Spermatis vero principium est ex humoribus.’ Ibid. fol. 4va. Here and in subsequent quotations from this edition of the Canon I have occasionally emended the text for sense.Google Scholar

19 ‘ Species vero prima [ethica] in tres dividitur species. Quod est quia humiditates que sunt in nobis quatuor sunt secundum apparentiam cognitam, scilicet illa que est in instrumentis et illa que est in locis vacuis ex nobis et illa que est in carne que fabricatur nova et recens [ed.: retinens] et [illa que est] aggregans substantiam uniuscuiusque membrorum. …’ Practica Jo. Serapionis dicta Breviarium (Venice 1505) tract. VI cap. xi; fol. 51rb .Google Scholar

20 ‘Verum dum ipsa permanet finiendo humiditates que sunt in divisione [ed.: digestione] prima in membris et proprie cordis sicut finit candela oleum infusum in lucerna, tunc est gradus primus appropriatus nomine granis que est ethica. … Et cum finit humiditates que sunt divisionis prime et incipit resolvere humiditates que sunt divisionis secunde, et finire eas sicut finit flamma oleum evacuatum in lucerna et incipit finire imbibitum in corpus lichinii erit gradus secundus … et parum recipit curationem nisi deus velit. … Cum ergo finiuntur iste et incipit finire humiditates que sunt divisionis tertie sicut incipit flamma adurere corpus lichinii et humiditates eius radicales est egritudo gradus tertii. …’ Avicenna, Canon fol. 413vb .Google Scholar

21 ‘Calor igitur innatus est causa extinguendi seipsum accidentaliter propterea quod fit causa sui ipsius materiam consumendi, sicut lampadis flamma que extinguitur propterea quod suam consumit materiam; et quanto plus siccitas secundum augmentum procedit, calor innatus secundum diminutionem incedit, ergo accidit defectus nunquam cessans usque ad ultimum qui est defectus restaurandi humiditatem loco eius quod resolutum fuit; defectus igitur semper augetur.’ Ibid. fol. 53ra .Google Scholar

22 ‘… Et hec est mors naturalis cuique individuo destinata, secundum suam primam complexionem usque ad terminum, quem in sua potentia habet ad suam humiditatem conservandam. …’ Ibid. lib. I fen 1 doct. iii cap. iii; De complexionibus etatum (fol. 4rb).Google Scholar

23 This dependence may of course sometimes be indirect. Thomas Aquinas shows a thorough familiarity with the humidum radicale in the Summa Theologica (la q. 119; cf. Hall, , ‘Radical Moisture’ 11) but does not refer to Avicenna specifically. He could perfectly well have drawn his information from his teacher, Albertus Magnus, who evidently found the humidum radicale an eminently useful concept (cf. Hall, 10-11, for some but by no means all of the references made by Albertus to the radical moisture). Albertus' knowledge of the radical-moisture doctrine certainly did come from Avicenna, to whom he gives credit for the lamp metaphor (although he does not use the ros/cambium/glutinum terminology); see Liber de morte et vita tract. II cap. vi; in B. Alberti Magni Opera Omnia ed. Borgnet, , IX (Paris 1890) 360. Because of Albertus' close familiarity with the humidum radicale and allied subjects, I mean frequently to compare his views with those of the Montpellier physicians discussed in the remainder of my paper.Google Scholar

24 On Henry, see Talbot, C. H., Medicine in Medieval England (London 1967) 61–63. I have followed the text of Henry's commentary upon the Isagoge found in MS Oxford, New College 171 fols. 1r-18v. ‘Etas’ is taken up on fol. 8va-b .Google Scholar

25 ‘Etas est dispositio in corpore animalis introducta ex actione caloris innati in humido spermatico essentiali certo temporis spatio mensurata.’ MS Kues 222 fol. 19ra. On Cardinalis, see Wickersheimer, Ernest, Dictionnaire biographique des médecins en France au moyen-âge (Paris 1936) (I) 94–95. Cardinalis' commentary upon the Isagoge may be found in MS Kues 222 fols. 1r-48r .Google Scholar

26 MSS Oxford, New College 171 fol. 14ra-b; Kues 222 fols. 33ra-34ra. I am presently occupied with a study that will more fully contrast Henry and Cardinalis in the context of thirteenth-century medical thought.Google Scholar

27 Galen, , De complexionibus lib. II cap. ii, in Opera (1490) fol. 228va-b; Kuhn I 580ff. I owe the suggestion that the De complexionibus must have been the new text responsible for the change in Montpellier doctrine to Dr. Richard J. Durling.Google Scholar

28 MS Oxford, New College 171 fol. 14ra .Google Scholar

29 ‘… Calor cordis excedit medium et fit extraneus, qui veniens usque ad humiditatem membrorum que dicitur ros, que continetur in concavitatibus cordis, ab utero materno contractis, inflammat earn et consumit et postea humiditatem venarum manuum et arteriarum et postea humiditatem omnium membrorum; et sic est prima species ethice. Si autem calor extraneus magis profundetur, ita quod consumat terciam humiditatem contractam in concavitatibus membrorum factis cotidie ex actione caloris, qui dicitur cambium, consumit earn et postea humiditatem venarum et arteriarum et postea aliorum membrorum; et est secunda species. Si autem ulterius profundetur calor extraneus, fit ita ut consumat humiditatem quartam, que ligat omnes corporis partes, que dicitur glutinum; et fit tercia species. Unde prima species ethice est in membris solidis depascens se humiditate secunda, secunda species ethice est in membris solidis depascens se humiditate tercia, tercia species ethice est in membris solidis depascens se humiditate quarta. … Item nota quod omnis ptisicus est ethicus. Item nota quod prima species ethice est curabilis, et secunda (sed cum maiori difficultate), tercia autem species ethice est incurabilis nisi sola dei voluntate, ut dicit Avicenna; quod sic patet per simile. In lampade est triplex humiditas: prima est oleum dispersum per totum corpus lampadis, secunda est oleum inbibitum in lichino, tercia est humiditas substantial que ligat partes lichini. Prima humiditas potest restaurari et secunda, sed tercia non; eodem modo in corporibus nostris est. …’ MS Kues 222 fol. 334a-b .Google Scholar

29a Particularly important are De longitudine et brevitate vite (Aristotelis Opera VI [Venice 1562] fols. 144-148v), and De iuventute et senectute (ibid., fols. 149-159). Cardinalis himself cites only the De somno et vigilia from the Parva naturalia in his commentary on Johannitius (fol. 14ra).Google Scholar

29b “Duo sunt sanguines vel genera sanguinum. Unus enim sanguis est qui ex nutrimentis generatur. … Est et alius sanguis, qui corpori animato substantialis. De quo dicitur, quod tysis est consumptio substantialis humiditatis, id est sanguinis vitae necessarii; qui secundum phisicos dicitur amicus naturae. …” Paris, Matthew, Chronica Majora (ed. Luard, H. R.) VI 143. For a number of indications that Grosseteste was well acquainted with contemporary medicine, see Wickersheimer, Ernest, ‘Robert Grosseteste et la médecine,’ Proc. Third Int. Congr. Hist. Med. (Antwerp 1923) 259-262, where a portion of this quotation is given.Google Scholar

29c Peter of Spain's exposition of De longitudine et brevitate vite is edited in Hispano, Pedro, Obras Filosoficas, III (Madrid 1952) 403–490. Peter of course wrote a number of strictly medical works, including commentaries on the Articella. In his exposition of De longitudine he refers to Constantine the African by name but not to Avicenna. On Albertus Magnus, see above, n. 23, and below, n. 57.Google Scholar

Another testimony to the widespread acceptance of these medical ideas by very different philosophical schools is provided by Boethius of Dacia, writing before 1271: ‘Dicunt tamen auctores medicinae quod animal se non potest perpetuare, quia humidum cibale conversum in membrum retardat consumptionem humidi radicalis et non auget humidum radicale, fit tamen continua consumptio humidi radicalis.’ Boethii Daci Questiones de generatione et corruptione, Lib. I Quaestio 35b; ed. Sajo, Geza in Boethii Daci Opera, Vol. V pars 1 (Copenhagen 1972) 68.Google Scholar

30 De marcore liber, in Opera Galeni ed. Kuhn, VII 666-704. An English translation of Kuhn's Greek text has recently been published by Theoharides, Theoharis C., ‘Galen on Marasmus,’ Journal of the History of Medicine 26 (1971) 369–390.Google Scholar

31 The versions are so close that they should probably be called two recensions of a single translation. Compare the opening sentences: ‘Tabes est corruptio viventis corporis ex siccitate. Duplex autem corruptio dicitur, hec quidem in fieri, hec autem in facto esse; sed primum quidem significatum audire oportet appellationem. Sic autem et ipsa tabes, hec quidem in esse tabidum utique, alia vero in tabescere, de qua nunc sermo existit. Quoniam autem …’ MS Vat. Lat. 2378 fol. 240va; also found in MS Vat. Lat. 2381 fol. 206va and Opera (1490) fol. 128ra .Google Scholar

‘Marasmus est corruptio viventis corporis in siccitate. Dupliciter autem corruptione dicta, hac quidem in fieri, illa vero in facto esse; secundum primum significatum audire oportet nuncupationem. Ita autem et ipse marasmus, hic quidem a marasmato esse dicetur, ille vero a marasmon, de quo hunc sermo. Quoniam autem …’ MS Vat. Pal. lat. 1094 fol. 632ra; also in MS BN Lat. 6865 fol. 121va. It is always this version that is associated with the name of Niccolò da Reggio.Google Scholar

Dr. Richard J. Durling and Dr. Fridolf Kudlien are planning an edition of the Greek text of De marasmo together with the two Latin versions.Google Scholar

32 MS Vat. Lat. 2384 fol. 67va and MS Vat. Barb. 179 fol. 60vb .Google Scholar

33 Thorndike, Lynn, ‘Translations of Works of Galen from the Greek by Niccolò da Reggio (c. 1308-1345),’ Byzantina Metabyzantina 1 (1945) 213–235.Google Scholar

34 In one manuscript the version of Galen's De marasmo that I take to be the earlier is ascribed to Pietro d'Abano: CLM 5 fol. 251vb — cited in Diels, Hermann, Die Handschriften der antiken Ärtze (Leipzig 1970; reprint of 1905-07) III 32 (10). If this ascription is correct, the translation would probably have been completed within the period 1275-1315.Google Scholar

35 ‘Monstratum est autem et antea iam in vii libro huius opusculi, monstratum autem est in libro de marasmo id est tabe, et ante hos adhuc secundum sanativum opusculum, quod non possibile est solidarum particularum siccitatem finaliter sanare. …’ Galen, , De ingenio sanitatis lib. X cap. x; Opera (1490) fol. 419rb .Google Scholar

36 ‘Senectus quidem que ex morbo frigida existens simul cum siccitate febris non est; alia vero species ab assatione nominata a philippo tabes, vere tabes est, quemadmodum et sincopatus. …’ Galen, , Tractatus de marasmo; Opera (1490) fol. 129ra .Google Scholar

37 ‘Aliter vero quod dixi [ed.: dixit) in antea non de nominibus solicitari oportet, sed exiccari secundum omnes dispositiones corpus cognoscere simul et curare recte.’ Ibid. fol. 129va .Google Scholar

38 'Humectare namque oportet tres dispositiones, et his hoc commune propter communem siccitatem: calefieri indigens una quam senectuti assimilamus, quemadmodum infrigidari una quam tabem nominamus, ex mixta vero aliqualiter sanatione sincopalis indiget tabes. Ibid. fol. 129rb .Google Scholar

39 Jean Astruc included this title among his list of Bernard's works, together with De gradibus and De theriaca, although he had never seen any of the three and had accepted the word of Schenck, J. G. for their existence (Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la faculté de médecine de Montpellier [Paris 1767] 180). Pagel, J. L. published both De gradibus and De theriaca in Pharmaceutische Post in the late-nineteenth century, but De marasmo remained unknown until recently, when Professors Kibre and Demaitre turned up the work in MS Vat. Pal. lat. 1234 fols. 135v-139v. Subsequently, following the lead of Lynn Thorndike, ‘Niccolò da Reggio,’ 226, I have identified it in MS Oxford, Bodl. Digby 56 fols. 52-55. I have also found it, misattributed to Galen, in MS London, BM Sloane 3096 fols. 335-337, and a portion of it in MS Oxford, Corpus Christi 125 fols. 13v-15.Google Scholar

40 On the dating of the Colliget in translation and its arrival at Montpellier, see McVaugh, Michael, ‘Arnald of Villanova and Bradwardine's Law,’ Isis 58 (1967) 62 n. 16. On Bernard's dates, see Sudhoff, Karl, ‘Zur Schriftstellerei Bernhards von Gordon und deren zeitlicher Folge,’ Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 10 (1917) 162-188.Google Scholar

41 McVaugh, Michael, ‘Theriac at Montpellier 1285-1325,’ Sudhoffs Archiv 56 (1972) 113–144 especially 116-122.Google Scholar

42 ‘Cum enim discrasia calida et sicca febrilis est affixa substantie cordis, tunc primo consumuntur humores qui sunt in venis et arteriis, deinde pinguedo et adeps et caro, deinde ros et cambium, et postquam venit ad consumptionem glutini, iam tunc intrat marasmus et tabes cum incipit macerescere et consumi humidum radicale, et exinde modo aliquo curari non potest.’ Tractatus de marasmo cap. tertium; MS Vat. Pal. lat. 1234 fol. 137va .Google Scholar

43 ‘Et est intelligendum quoniam licet notabiliter totum corpus sit consumptum, tamen cor et epar non sic, quoniam virtus attractiva sanguinis est fortior.’ Ibid. fol. 137va-b; cf. Galen's own views in Theoharides, ‘Galen on Marasmus,’ 380 (cf. Kuhn VII 683-84).Google Scholar

44 'Cum corpus humanum indigeat cibo restaurante deperditum et cibus non sit undique et omnino assimilabilis corpori humano, ideo vita non potest perpetuari, quoniam cum sit contrarietas inter cibum et corpus et omne agens physicum patiatur in agendo et passum in resistendo agat, ideo calidum naturale alterabitur a cibo et similiter humidum radicale, in tantum quod cibus adveniens non est in eodem puncto penitus temperantie in quo erat quod resolutum est, et ita per continuam cibi acceptionem etiam fit continua alteration Tractatus de marasmo cap. quartum; MS Vat. Pal. lat. 1234 fol. 138ra .Google Scholar

45 ‘… Semper universa substantia nostra fluit ob innatum calorem nobis unde ut non corrumpatur corpus indigemus … aliam substantiam similem effluenti in locum deficientis inducere. Ideoque per cibum replemus quantumcumque sicce substantie effluit. … Et siquidem possemus tale aliquid introducere quod simile effluenti esset, hoc sanissimum et optimum esset. Sed quia hoc impossibile est, quia illud quod defluit ab unoquoque membrorum talis natura est quale ipsum membrum a quo defluit, nihil autem eorum que comeduntur et bibuntur tale est omnino quale est id quod effluxit, necesse habet natura coqueri ea et transmutare et preparare et assimilare corpori quod nutritur.’ De regimine sanitatis , in Galen, , Opera (1490) fol. 369va. I owe this reference to Dr. Richard J. Durling. Google Scholar

46 Magnus, Albertus, De aetate tract. II cap. ii; Opera , ed. Borgnet, IX 318. It is worth noting that Albert's language here is closer to Bernard's — both use the activity of every patiens and the passivity of every agens to prove their point — than it is to Galen's in the passage cited above. The same thought is expressed by Albert in still different language in Liber I De Generatione et corruptione tract. III cap. viii; Opera IV 383-384.Google Scholar

47 ‘Et ideo in senio non est proprie marasmus nisi transumptive nec etiam in ethica senectutis que fit in puero et iuvene propter malam complexionem frigidam et siccam …, non est tabis que appellatur marasmus, quoniam hoc non est possibile nisi in mala discrasia calida et sicca, ubi agens est ita intensum quod potest humidum ducere ad ultimum cineritatis, sicut fuit exemplificatum in lichino et in ethyca.’ Tractatus de marasmo fol. 138rb. Note Bernard's clarification of the Galenic distinction between old age, aging that is the product of cold and dry disease, and marasmus.Google Scholar

48 Tractatus de pronosticis part. II cap. vi: De pronosticatione secundum naturam etatis; in Practica Gordonii (Venice 1521) fols. 101v-102r .Google Scholar

49 Lilium medicine part. I cap. ix: De ethica febre; in the same, fols. 6va-7ra. The remedy in the Lilium (fol. 6v) finds its counterpart in the Tractatus de marasmo in cap. vi, at the beginning of fol. 139rb of MS Vat. Pal. lat. 1234.Google Scholar

50 Professor Luke Demaitre has called my attention to one other Bernardian reference to the humidum radicale, in the prologue to part IV of his De conservatione vite humane (1308).Google Scholar

51 McVaugh, Michael, ‘Arnald of Villanova,’ in Dictionary of Scientific Biography I (New York 1970) 289–96.Google Scholar

52 Avicenna, , Liber Canonis fols. 23rb, 352rb-va. Echoes of the Avicennan distinction are discoverable in Western medicine shortly after the Canon began to be widely read. Cardinalis, in his commentary on the Isagoge, distinguishes between ‘philosophi, qui causas et rerum essencias investigant,’ and ‘medicus, [qui] plus attendit utilitatem quam veritatem’ (MS Kues 222 fol. 40va), a distinction that seems to derive from Avicenna.Google Scholar

53 ‘Qui ergo vult esse fecundus viam teneat medicorum; quia autem aliter voluerit speculari teneat viam philosophorum. Avicenna tamen dicit in Canone quod ignorantia phylosophie in hoc casu non nocet medico.’ Tractatus de marasmo, MS Vat. Pal. lat. 1234 fol. 136ra. The reference is to the second of the two Avicennan passages referred to in n. 52.Google Scholar

54 Arnald's attitude is well expressed in a passage in his own Libellus de humido radicali: ‘Nec per hoc tamen intendimus sapientes medicos reprehendere, qui talia sermonibus docere videntur. Scimus enim intentiones peritorum medicine utpote artis fundatores rectos esse et sufficientiam considerare in medicina, non necessitatem ultime veritatis, eo quod non nocet hoc eis ad considerandum intentum. … Nos vero predictam sufficientiam sermonum medicorum hic non suscipimus explanare, sed solum circa veritatem proficientem intellectum circa talem materiam laboramus.’ De humido radicali tract. I cap. ii; Opera (Venice 1505) fol. 45va. In Arnald's Speculum, he cites De humido radicali to just this effect (Opera fol. 2vb).Google Scholar

55 Opera (1505) fols. 2vb, 22rb .Google Scholar

56 ‘Forme naturales non quantamcumque sustineant quantitatem subiecti, sed certam potius et finitam.’ De humido radicali tract. I cap. i (Opera fol. 45ra).Google Scholar

57 This division is probably not original with Arnald; his humidum radicale and humidum nutrimentale are very close to the humidum spermaticum and humidum nuirimentale of Albertus Magnus (Liber de morte et vita tract. II cap. vi; Opera ed. Borgnet, IX 360). Nor are these fluids really different from the humiditates of earlier discussions, as Thomas S. Hall would seem to suggest (‘Radical Moisture,’ 13). The humidum nutrimentale is the final product of the third digestion — i.e., is glutinum. The intermediate stages in the formation of glutinum, ros, and cambium, need not be mentioned since Arnald is not concerned to explain the course of hectic fever, in which these humidities are successively attacked.Google Scholar

58 De humido radicali tract. I cap. iii.Google Scholar

59 ‘Ergo ex predictis habetur quod humidum quod est principium generationis active scilicet sperma quod a mare deciditur recipit potentiam generationis ab anima tertia digestione operante in quolibet membro.’ De humido radicali tract. II cap. ii; Opera (1505) fol. 47rb. In a later work, however, Arnald seems to be expressing a different view, that sperm is the superfluity of the third digestion taking place within the testes alone (Speculum medicine cap. lxviii; Opera [1505] fol. 22rb). Both these opinions had some popularity in the thirteenth century. John of Saint-Amand summed up the issue in the 1280s with a long questio in his Concordancie, ‘Utrum sperma decidatur ab omnibus membris,’ and concluded ‘quod sperma in tempore coitus non exit a toto corpore sed a superfluitate membrorum aliquorum’ (Concordanciae ed. Pagel, J. L. [Berlin 1894] 327-329). In this he was generally following the line of reasoning developed by Aristotle in De animalibus XVI (De generatione animalium I 721b6 et seq.), but he added medical arguments on either side. Arnald's first view, that presented in De humido radicali, had earlier been defended by Albertus Magnus (Liber de nutrimento et nutribili tract. II cap. ii; Opera ed. Borgnet, IX 339); within the Montpellier faculty it seems to have been held by Bernard of Gordon (‘alia humiditas [tertie digestionis] … appellatur cambium, et ex hac materia nutriuntur membra et residuum fit materia seminalis.’ Tractatus de marasmo MS Vat. Pal. lat. 1234 fol. 138va. Thus Arnald's resolution of the problem he has set himself is based on a widely accepted doctrine, not a novelty of his own devising.Google Scholar

60 ‘Fuerunt autem nonnulli quibus mortis naturalis et impossibilitatis sue retardationis alias causas assignaverunt, quorum quidam dixerunt quod causa mortis naturalis euiuscumque corporis viventis, supposito quod omni ei convenientia debito modo concurrat; non est nisi dissimilitudo et contrarietas nutrientis in potentia ad ipsum corpus, in qua dissimilitudine et contrarietate persistens secundum plus et minus dum est in permutatione agit in corpus vivens et calorem eius continuo alterans et debilitans, etiam supposito quod nutriens ministraretur quantum convenientius posset ministrari; nihilominus tamen semper erit dissimile et hanc formam dissimilitudinis, sicut dictum est, retinet in transmutatione secundum plus et minus; ex quibus concluditur quod omnibus convenientibus salvationi viventis corporis concurrentibus laudabiliter sicut debent et naturaliter possunt, nihilominus tamen propter hanc actionem contrarietatis viventis in corpore cessavit vita, cum ipsum corpus vivens, ut patiens est, non sit infinite virtutis in resistendo. Nos autem dicimus quod licet verum sit supra dicto modo agere ad corruptionem viventis, non tamen dici debet absolute causa mortis naturalis convenientis particulari subiecto. …’ De humido radicali tract. II cap. iv; Opera (1505) fol. 48va. Arnald need not have been referring specifically to Bernard in this passage, since the position he is criticizing was evidently widely maintained (above, n. 46).Google Scholar

61 This is not quite correct, as I have found since writing this passage. Gerard's treatment of hectic fever in his Tractatus de febribus cap. iv is strictly a therapeutic survey and ignores any theoretical foundation (Introductorium iuvenum Geraldi de Solo [Venice 1505] fols. 12vb-13ra). He does, however, explain the aging process in terms of consumption of radical moisture in his commentary upon Johannitius' Isagoge (MS Wroclaw IV. F. 24 fols. 415r-416v).Google Scholar

62 ‘Theriac at Montpellier,’ op. cit., and ‘Quantified Medical Theory and Practice in Fourteenth-Century Montpellier,’ Bulletin of the History of Medicine 43 (1969) 397–413.Google Scholar

63 Gerard's treatment of hectic fever in his Tractatus de febribus cap. iv is strictly a therapeutic survey and ignores any theoretical foundation (Introductorium iuvenum Geraldi de Solo [Venice 1505] fols. 12vb-13ra ).Google Scholar

64 Introductorium in practica pro provectis in theorica supra primam fen quarti canonis compositum per magistrum Bernhardum Alberti cap. de ethica; MS Vat. Pal. lat. 1331 fol. 138r .Google Scholar

65 ‘Secundo corpora sana non habent purgari quia cum medicina operetur per similem saltim in forma proporcionali ut nostra tenet scola non inveniens malum humorem nocitivum convertit se ad carnem et humiditates radicales. …’ Chirurgia magna tract. VII doct. 1 cap. ii; in Ars Chirurgica Guidonis Cauliaci … (Venice 1546) fol. 85ra .Google Scholar

66 Tractatus de febribus, cap iii; in Clarificatorium … Joannis de Tornamira … super nono almansoris (Venice 1507).Google Scholar

67 See Hall, 14-18. To show that not all fourteenth-century writers had lost interest in the possibilities of the humidum radicale in medical explanation, we may cite Thomas de Garbo's Tractatus de restauratione humidi radicalis, written at Florence in the mid-1340s. It should also be remarked that the radical moisture still had some appeal at Montpellier in the sixteenth century, as the work of Laurent Joubert shows: see Gale, Frederick M., ‘“Whether it is Possible to Prolong Man's Life Through the Use of Medicine,”’ Journal of the History of Medicine 26 (1971) 391–399.Google Scholar