International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

SCIENCE IN THE BYZANTINE WORLD
Chairs: 
Alain Touwaide, Stavros Lazaris
Danilo Valentino
, 
The Interesting Case of Iatrosophion from 
MS. Taur. B.VII.18
: Manuscript Belonging to Classical 
Greek Medicine Tradition or Work from Late Byzantine “Practical-Use Literature”?
Erika Gielen
, 
From Flatulence to Intestinal Erosion: 
Medical Knowledge in the Non-Medical Oeuvre of Nicephorus Blemmydes
Illya
Bey
, 
Византийская философия: в поисках определения
 
Ilias Nesseris
, 
Mathematics in the Twelfth-Century Byzantium
Christos Kafasis
, 
Cultural Exchange between the Byzantine and the Islamic World: 
Persian Astronomy in the 14
th
Century Trebizond
Alberto Bardi
, 
Bessarion and Persian Astronomy
Francesco Monticini
, 
Rêver les astres qui nous font rêver : astronomie et oniromancie à Byzance
Illya
Bey
, 
Византийская космография: расположение стихий
Dragana Van de Moortel Ilić
, 
The Cosmology of Aristotle and Plato in Serbian Medieval Churches: The Frescoes in the 
Bogorodica Ljeviška Church, Lesnovo and Visoki Dečani Monasteries as Case Studies

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Danilo Valentino
Centre for the Study of the Manuscript Cultures of the University of Hamburg,
Hamburg, Germany;
[e-mail]
The Interesting Case of Iatrosophion from 
MS. Taur. B.VII.18
: 
Manuscript Belonging to Classical Greek Medicine Tradition 
or Work from Late Byzantine “Practical-Use Literature”?
The iatrosophia are collections of medical recipes, which were widely disseminated during the 
late and post-Byzantine era. Written in a sort of early Modern Greek, these works were intended 
for practical usage, however their contents are often drawn from texts belonging to classical Greek 
medicine: by analyzing them, it is possible to widen our perception of “practical-use literature” 
(Gebrauchsliteratur) in Byzantium and to offer hints on alternative ways in transmitting classical 
Greek works in that society as well as in the following centuries. An interesting sample of iatrosophion 
is transmitted by MS. Taur. B.VII.18. This is a 16
th
century manuscript located in the Turin National 
Library, whose main source is the Pseudo-Galenic work De remediis parabilibus. The author 
employs it without comments and adds new text to it, making changes in both form and structure. 
The goal of this paper is to show features and contents of iatrosophion from Turin and especially to 
focus on modification processes of its sources, with the intention of proposing innovative criteria 
for the edition of this kind of “practical-use literature” and of readjusting our picture of culture in 
the late Byzantine era.