Thesis ID: CBB001561486

Monte Cassino and Medical Philosophy: “Body and Soul” Dilemmas (2006)

unapi

Grudzen, Gerald J. (Author)


Columbia University
Bulliet, Richard


Publication Date: 2006
Edition Details: Advisor: Bulliet, Richard
Physical Details: 376 pp.
Language: English

The monastery of Monte Cassino in Southern Italy became the pivotal center for the transfer of Arabic medical science into the Latin West at the end of the eleventh century. The most influential figure in this transmission of Arabic medical science was Constantine the African ( Constantinus Africanus ). He came to Monte Cassino from North Africa during the Gregorian Reform Era when Monte Cassino was at the peak of its influence over the ecclesiastical and cultural life of Italy. Constantine's Abbot, Desiderius, was an ally of Cardinal Hildebrand, the architect of the Gregorian Reform. (Pope Gregory VII, 1073-1085). During this period, Constantine and his associates provided translations of key medical texts from both Arabic and Greek either at Monte Cassino or Salerno. Constantine's friend and probable mentor in this work was Archbishop Alfanus of Salerno, formerly a monk of Monte Cassino and later the leading ecclesiastical figure in the medical center of Salerno. Alfanus had located an important medical and philosophical text written in Greek by Nemesius of Emesa entitled On Human Nature . He later translated this text into Latin. It contained critical passages for interpreting the body/soul relationship in the context of the Galenic medical philosophy. Galen's illustrious medical career in second-century Rome featured an enormous corpus of writings rivaling that of Aristotle. These writings later became a standardized medical philosophy in Alexandria during the Late Classical period of the fourth century. Nestorian Christians such as Hunayn Ibn Ishaq translated the key texts of Galen from Syriac and Greek into Arabic that Constantine probably found in North Africa in the eleventh century. The Arabic medical texts that Constantine translated contained a distinctive interpretation of sexuality that conformed to Galenic medical philosophy and contrasted sharply with the Neoplatonic philosophy and spirituality common in the early Middle Ages. The debate over the precise relationship of the body and soul became one of the central concerns of medieval philosophy and theology as well as a concern that affected the practice of clerical celibacy for the next one thousand years.

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Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 67/10 (2007). Pub. no. AAT 3237238.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001561486/

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Authors & Contributors
Pormann, Peter E.
Violet Moller
Bigotti, Fabrizio
Vagelpohl, Uwe
Syros, Vasileios
Newton, Francis
Concepts
Medicine
Arab/Islamic world, civilization and culture
Translations
Transmission of texts
Philosophy
Manuscripts
Time Periods
Medieval
Renaissance
17th century
16th century
13th century
11th century
Places
Italy
Greece
Europe
Rome (Italy)
Salerno (Italy)
Córdoba (Spain)
Institutions
Royal College of Physicians of London
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