Article

NEW FRAGMENTS FROM RUFUS OF EPHESUS’ ON MELANCHOLY (24A–D) AND ON PREFERRING FRESH POPPIES

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

Abstract

Rufus of Ephesus ( fl . c . a.d. 100) wrote a large body of works on a variety of medical topics. Generally speaking, the Arabic tradition is particularly important for the reconstruction of much of his œuvre. In the present article, I am going to present four new fragments of Rufus’ On Melancholy and a fragment from an otherwise unknown monograph On Preferring Fresh Poppies . These new fragments provide fascinating new insights into Rufus’ approach to recording case histories.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.

Article
Full-text available
Rufus of Ephesus (circa 1–2 AD) lived in the ancient city of Ephesus, Izmir Province of Turkey. He made significant contributions to many branches of sciences including neuroanatomy. This historical perspective manuscript focuses mainly on his neuroanatomical contributions. He described several structures, such as the pericranium, meninges, encephalon, parencephalon, varicosities, and the anatomy of the sellar region and the eye. He also coined essential terms in the nervous system such as tunica prima (dura mater), tunica altera (pia mater), spinal marrow (spinal cord), base of brain (brainstem), and choroid tunic (choroid plexus). Because of the limited number of extant works, he is not as well-known as his contemporaries. Yet, Rufus of Ephesus deserves to be recognized to the fullest for his precious and numerous contributions to neuroanatomy.
Article
Publishing a collection of fragments from a classical author is a risky business: the moment the book appears in print, it may already be outdated, as new fragments could have come to light. Or, in the words of Ecclesiasticus 18:7: 'When a man hath done, then he beginneth; and when he leaveth off, then he shall be doubtful' (áταν συντλ-σá áνθρωπος, ττáρχται, καá áτανπασηται,ττáπορηθ®σται). The same fate befell me shortly after the publication of my collection of fragments from Rufus of Ephesus' On Melancholy. Manfred Ullmann wrote to me that the late Rainer Degen had discovered a new fragment; in the course of my research, I came across some relevant quotations in the Hippocratic Treatments by the tenth-century author aá-áabari¯; and recently, Klaus-Dietrich Fischer published two related fragments. The following short note contains these new fragments together with an English translation and commentary. At the end, I also offer some addenda and corrigenda, partly in light of the reviews that have since appeared.
Article
Rufus of Ephesus's treatise Quaestiones Medicinales (QM; C1 AD) is unique in the known corpus of ancient medical writing. It has been taken for a procedural handbook serving an essentially operational purpose. But with its insistent message that doctors cannot properly understand and treat illnesses unless they supplement their own knowledge by questioning patients, and its distinct appreciation of the singularity of each patient's experience, Rufus's work shows itself to be no mere handbook but a treatise about the place of questioning in the clinical encounter. This paper concentrates on two aspects of Rufus's thought that are unusual by comparison with other ancient medical texts: his distinctively person-centred rather than disease-based concept of questioning, and his extension of ‘habits’ beyond the dietary and occupational to include an indeterminate range of individual characteristics whose relevance to illness is not immediately obvious. In his quest for subjective information to set alongside observable facts, Rufus appreciates that illness cannot be understood simply through objective physical data. His treatise, with its exhortatory tone and phenomenological undertones, shows that he gave careful consideration to how the patient's perspective can help build medical knowledge, giving QM a greater philosophical significance than has previously been appreciated.
Article
Editor's Thesis (Ph. D.)--Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), 1994. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 747-769). Tome 1 (2 v. ) Introduction -- Tome 2. Texte critique et traduction -- Tome 3. Commentaire.
Syriac and Persian Sources in the ‘Comprehensive Book’ of Rhazes
  • Sanskrit
Book-titles mentioned in the 10th century medical encyclopedia Al-Muʿālajāt al-Buqrātịyya
  • Ambjörn
De fragmentis Herae Cappadocis atque Rufi Ephesii hactenus ignotis
  • K.-D Fischer
The text is edited on the basis of two extant manuscripts: Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi, Şehid Ali Paşa, MS 20451, fol. 50b, last line - fol. 51a, line 4 (S4); and Istanbul
  • P E Pormann
MS Nuruosmaniye 3527 (henceforth S2). The ‘alternate’ commentary occurs on fol. 27a, line 1 - fol. 27b
  • Süleymaniye Istanbul
  • Kütüphanesi
28); CB1, fol. 27b, lines 4-9 and S2, fol. 27a, line 2 from the bottom - fol. 27b, line 3. I have collated S2, not used by Pormann et al. (n. 28), in order to produce a more sound and secure text
  • Pormann
The Hippocratic Treatments: Al-Muʿālajāt al-Buqrāṭīya, 2 vols. (Frankfurt, 1990)Google Scholar (henceforth MS T), 1.259, lines 9-14; 2) Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Marsh 158, fol. 188b, lines 19-25 (henceforth MS O; see Savage-Smith, E., A New Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library
  • Malik Millī Teheran
  • Library
  • F Sezgin
Al-Maqāla al-ṯāniya min Šarḥ Fuṣūl Abuqrāṭ li-bn Abī Ṣādiq
  • P E Pormann
Al-Maqāla al-sābiʿa min Kitāb Taysīr al-wuṣūl ilā tafsīr al-Fuṣūl li-Abuqrāṭ li-l-Sinǧārī
  • P E Pormann