Charles Joseph Singer

"Dr. Singer (generally considered the greatest medical historian of the [twentieth] century) in seven scholarly papers presents a diverse yet unified picture of science under the Roman Empire, the decline of science during the Middle Ages, and the gradual rebirth of scientific thought toward the end of the twelfth century. Authoritative without being pedantic, the author describes and analyzes such important documents as the Lorica of Gildas the Briton, the Visions of Hildegard of Bingen, the Juliana Anicia Codex, and other herbals, medico-religious tracts, and documents from the borderline between science and magic. The Roman innovation of the hospital system, the enormous Roman advances in sanitation, the remarkably scientific mind of Julius Caesar and the completely credulous mind of Pliny, Arabian influence on the medieval world, astrology as a science and a religion, scholasticism and science, incantations, rituals, laying on of hands, anatomical diagrams, diagnosis and treatment of disease, Galenic influences, the Sphere of Pythagoras, doctrine of the elf-shot, religious visions and migraine, early herbals and the influence of classical art, philosophies of birth and death and the nature of the soul, falsifications of Constantine the African, legends of the school of Salerno, the reawakening of science under Leonardo da Vinci, Vesalius, Paracelsus and others are covered in lucid and detailed chapters. Frequent quotations with translations give some of the feeling of this distant world which otherwise would remain an abstraction. 158 photographs and figures illustrate many Roman and Medieval manuscripts, maps, surgical instruments, etc. New introduction by the author for this unabridged and corrected edition." --Back cover.