Leprosy in the Mediterranean medical literature : the Kitāb al-Malakī and related texts / Anna Gili.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gili, Anna, author.

Contributor:

Touwaide, Alain, publishing director, writer for foreword.

Series:

Medicine in the medieval Mediterranean ; 12.

Medicine in the medieval Mediterranean ; volume 12

Language:

Arabic

English

Latin

Subjects (All):

Majūsī, ʻAlī ibn al-ʻAbbās, active 10th century-11th century. Kāmil al-ṣināʻah al-ṭibbīyah.

Majūsī, ʻAlī ibn al-ʻAbbās.

Constantine, the African, approximately 1020-1087. Pantegni.

Constantine.

Stephanus, Antiochenus, active 1127. Liber regalis.

Stephanus.

Medicine, Arab.

Manuscripts, Medieval.

Leprosy--Mediterranean Region--History--To 1500.

Leprosy.

Leprosy--Early works to 1800.

Medicine, Ancient.

History, Ancient.

Leprosy--History.

Mediterranean Region.

Medical Subjects:

Leprosy.

History, Ancient.

Mediterranean Region.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 439 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin/Boston : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2025.

[Berlin, Germany] ; [Boston, Massachusetts] : De Gruyter, [2026]

Language Note:

Primarily in English. Includes excerpts from texts in their original Arabic and Latin, with English translations.

Summary:

Recent studies have underlined the importance of consulting different sources to trace global histories of diseases.However, due to a lack of critical editions of medical works, leprosy is poorly understood, and a wider interpretation of it as a historical phenomenon is yet to be proposed.

"Recent studies have underlined the importance of consulting different sources to trace global histories of diseases. However, due to a lack of critical editions of medical works, leprosy is poorly understood, and a wider interpretation of it as a historical phenomenon is yet to be proposed. Building on a broad critical editing and analysis of Arabic and Latin texts, this book traces a new history of leprosy moving from late antiquity to the Islamic and Latin Middle Ages, thus proving the necessity of a comparative approach to grasp its Mediterranean scope. Challenging established historical reconstructions, this study demonstrates that Arabic texts were familiar with a scientific approach to contagiousness. It also shows how, when faced with the diffusion of leprosy as an endemic disease, Latin physicians tried to solve the enigma of its nature avoiding any moral censorship. Each chapter includes the relevant texts, all related to al-Maǧūsī's encyclopedia Kitāb al-Malakī (10th c.), in critical edition with an English translation. The book aims to contribute historians from different areas with a realistic picture of how theoretical, learned medicine considered leprosy, opening the possibility of broader research on other sources."--Degruyterbrill.com.

Contents:

Foreword / Alain Touwaide

Acknowledgements

Table of contents

Introduction

Part I. The Kitāb al-malakī and its Latin tradition : The composition of a medical encyclopedia, Al-Maǧūsī and his Kitāb al-malakī ; The compilation of a medical translation, Constantine the African and his Pantegni ; A new historical contextualisation, Stephanus the Philosopher and his Liber regalis

Part II. Leprosy from Alexandria to Baġdād and Western Europe : History of leprosy, a critical review ; Leprosy in the Kitāb al-malakī and its Mediterranean tradition, critical editions and translations ; Medical understanding of leprosy from late antiquity to the early twelfth century

Part III. Leprosy in the Practica pantegni : The Practica pantegni and related texts, critical editions and translations ; Re-compiling a translation, the genesis of the Practica pantegni on leprosy

Epilogue

Appendix : Arabic-Latin glossaries ; Glossaries of technical terms ; Glossaries of pharmacotherapeutic lexicon

Bibliography

Index of manuscripts

General index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (in footnotes, throughout, and collected on pages 405-431) and indexes (on pages 432-439).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

3-11-133151-2

9783111331515

9783111330877

3111330877

OCLC:

1561174803