Entre pratique et théorie : la palette colorée des remèdes salernitains (xie-xiiie siècle)

Abstract

The therapeutic methods of the Salernitan doctors were based on the “medicine of opposites”. From the end of the 11th century, thanks to the translations of Constantine the African, they have been enriched by a theoretical framework seeking to define more precisely the effect of the remedies. A graduated evaluation of the raw qualities (hot-cold-dry-wet) of the simple ingredients entering into the composition of pharmacological preparations is then set up. However, the works of the practice report prescriptions which seem to fall under another framework of reading, of the old tradition of an “analogical medicine” in which a relation is established between the name, the aspect, the color of a cure and those of the disease to be treated. This article tries to see how these two approaches overlap or not by studying some colored elements of the Salernitan pharmacopoeia.

Keywords

• medical school of Salerno
• elementary qualities
• pharmacopeia
• medicine of opposites
• compound medicines
• colours