ABSTRACT
The practice of using plants for medical treatment is as old as is mankind. Classical sources (by Dioscorides, Pliny, and Apuleius Platonicus, as well as the theory of humours by Galen) formed the basis for medieval healthcare. The Hippocratic oath (c. fourth century BC) is the earliest expression of medical ethics. Although some medieval recipes are not advisable, others are: people knew the healing potency of hypericum, but were also aware of the poisonous power of hemlock. The quadripartite periodization – monastic medicine / Salernitan medicine / the rise of the universities / scholastic medicine – is based on the relationship of texts to their Greco-Roman sources. Medieval writings like those of Hildegard von Bingen and local vernacular sources were popular in their own time.
