Exploring Ancient Pharmacology: Drugs, Words, and Practices
Date limite : 15/06/2025
International Conference
Exploring Ancient Pharmacology: Drugs, Words, and Practices
University of Bologna
24-26/11/2025
Organizers: Martina Dattilo and Caterina Manco in collaboration with Matteo Martelli
Call for papers
“You should consider a physician learned and wise, trained and skillful, if he can cure with drugs diseases which surgeons treat by making incisions” (Galen, Opt.Med.Cogn. I, 10, trans. A.Z. Iskandar). With these words, Galen (2nd century CE) reveals his profound preference for pharmacology over surgery. As a towering figure in the history of medicine, the physician from Pergamon, Galen, lends his name to ‘Galenic formulations,' yet the origins of pharmacological practices are much more ancient and are often shrouded in myth. In Ancient Greece, traces of this medical knowledge can be found in the Mycenaean Linear B tablets, but the first systematic treatises date back only to the 4th century BC and focus primarily on simples. Jean-Marie Jacques has described the simples as the first “tool” to employ in cases of illness, and has stated that, if these fail, one should turn to the more complex compounded remedies. The science of compounded medicines and toxicology flourishes in the Hellenistic era, driven by the medical breakthroughs of Herophilean physicians, the patronage of Hellenistic rulers, and the introduction of exotic substances. Pharmacological texts proliferated across this era, but they were later overshadowed by the monumental syntheses that emerged in the Roman period, particularly the works of Dioscorides and Galen. Even in Latin literature, Celsus, Pliny the Elder, and Scribonius Largus contributed comprehensive treatises, preserving a mere fragment of what had once been a diverse corpus of medicinal knowledge.
