The Art and Science of Healing: From Antiquity to the Renaissance

The Art and Science of Healing: From Antiquity to the RenaissanceThe Art and Science of Healing: From Antiquity to the Renaissance

Medical Text

Papyrus

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Medical codex In Greek Papyrus 136 x 60 mm 2nd c. AD Egypt P. Mich. inv. 1469

This papyrus preserves a single column from a scroll containing a medical treatise. The surviving text concerns dietary recommendations to patients afflicted with constipation. Below is a translation of this fragment:

to take the small portion of food, to drink all the previously mentioned liquids, and to drink in addition a little new wine, diluted until somewhat watery. To those who have a persistent constipation hard to clear up, much more than the quantities prescribed are given; but to those who suffer from weakness, less. And a moderate diet is prescribed when the bowels have become more relaxed. The risk of injury to the eyes has been previously mentioned…

Listen to the translation: