The foundations of medical history / by Sir D'Arcy Power.

D'Arcy Power

Date:: 1931

Credit: The foundations of medical history / by Sir D'Arcy Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

179/208 page 161

$THE PROBLEMS OF ALEXANDER APHRODISEUS I\ext to the Problems of Zimara come the “Prob¬ lems of Alexander Aphrodiseus.” The order is mis¬ placed, for in point of time Aphrodiseus was long before Zimara. He was a native of Aphrodisias, a city in Caria, and lived at the end of the second or beginning of the third century A.D. He is known as one of the celebrated commentators on Aristotle. His object was to restore the genuine interpretation of the writings of Aristotle and to free them from the accre¬ tions of the five hundred years which had elapsed since his death. His commentaries were translated from the original Greek in which he wrote them into Latin and Arabic. It is rather doubtful whether Alexander Aphro¬ diseus wrote the Problems with which he is credited, and the real author may have been Alexander Tral- lianus who was born in Tralles in Lydia and was a physician. He lived from 525 to 605 and was the author of many works on medicine and the treatment of disease. Pie practised in Rome and travelled much in Spain, Gaul and Italy. He was a Christian which Alexander of Aphrodisias was not. The Problems speak of the immortality of the soul, which is a point in favour of their being attributed to Alexander of Tralles rather than to Alexander Aphrodiseus. The Problems appeared as “Iarpi/ca, curoprjpLaTa kclI (frvcnKa Trpo(3\r}/JLaTa,” and were translated into Arabic$

The foundations of medical history / by Sir D'Arcy Power.

Licence and re-use

Contents