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Darrera modificació: 2026-04-21
Bases de dades: Sciència.cat
Van der Eijk, Philip, "Two summaries of Galenic element theory from late antiquity (Oribasius, Nemesius)", Technai, 16 [=The harmony of the elements: philosophical and technical perspectives from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, I] (2025), 63-84.
- Resum
- In this paper I will study two texts summarising Galenic element theory both dating to the middle or late fourth century CE : a chapter ‘On the Elements according to Hippocrates' from Oribasius' Medical Collections, and the two chapters ‘On the Body' and ‘On the Elements' from Nemesius' On the Nature of the Human Being. I will show that there are striking similarities between these two accounts which may reflect a common understanding of Galenic element theory and a common agenda, which consists in reinstating the role of the four elements earth, fire, water and air as the most fundamental level of material organisation and as distinct from the four elementary qualities hot, cold, dry and wet and the four humours blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. This may be seen as a tacit correction of a tendency in medical texts of late antiquity to regard the elementary qualities, and their mixtures, as the dominant players in the determination of an organism's nature. A side effect of this analysis is a better understanding of the role of the chapter on cosmic elements within Nemesius' treatise on human nature.
- Matèries
- Galè
Història de la medicina
Hipòcrates
- URL
- https://www.libraweb.net/articoli3.php?chiave=20251 ...
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