title: "De medicina et morbis" from De rerum naturis by Rabano Mauro.
abstract: De rerum naturis from the Monastery of Montecassino (MS codex 132) by Rabano Mauro, is a medieval encyclopedia issued around the year 1025, in the Abbey of Montecassino, during the period of Abbot Teobaldo. It is a copy of a more ancient text, written almost certainly in the Abbey of Fulda 2 centuries before, when Rabano Mauro was the abbot - that is, in the Carolingian age. In the Book 18 there is a chapter entitled "De medicina et morbis," in which we find related the fundamental principles on which studies of the human body, illness and the principal medicinal herbs were based. The text is not intended for teaching the medical art, but has the precise objective of helping to form the cultured Christian, trying to combine the old Greek-Roman tradition with a mystical vision, giving a moral application according to the dictates of Jewish-Christian religion. This text is indicative of the fusion of the scientific and religious worlds in the West during the Middle Ages. This interpretation of the universe will last for about a millennium, and only the Renaissance will be able to separate the 2 worlds again.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology and Dialysis, Saint Scolastic Hospital, Cassino, Italy. uonefro.cassino@libero.it
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Iorio
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mantella
authors.forename: Brunella
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Iorio
mesh_terms: D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000266:history*; D008374:Manuscripts, Medical as Topic / Q000266:history*