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Books by Laurence Totelin
Hippocratic Recipes' is the first extended study of the pharmacological recipes included in the H... more Hippocratic Recipes' is the first extended study of the pharmacological recipes included in the Hippocratic Corpus. The recipes, found mostly in the gynaecological and nosological treatises, are here examined both from a philological and a sociocultural point of view. Drawing on studies in the fields of classics, social history of medicine, and anthropology, this book offers new insights into the production and use of pharmacological knowledge in the classical world. In particular, it assesses the deep interactions between oral and written traditions in the transmission of this knowledge. Recipes are addressed as texts, but the existence of ‘missing links’ in the written tradition are acknowledged.
Papers by Laurence Totelin
Brepols Publishers eBooks, 2023
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Smell and the Ancient Senses, 2014
From flowers and perfumes to urban sanitation and personal hygiene, smella sense that is simultan... more From flowers and perfumes to urban sanitation and personal hygiene, smella sense that is simultaneously sublime and animalistichas played a pivotal role in western culture and thought. Greek and Roman writers and thinkers lost no opportunity to connect the smells that bombarded their senses to the social, political and cultural status of the individuals and environments that they encountered: godly incense and burning sacrifices, seductive scents, aromatic cuisines, stinking bodies, pungent farmyards and festering back-streets. The cultural study of smell has largely focused on pollution, transgression and propriety, but the olfactory sense came into play in a wide range of domains and activities: ancient medicine and philosophy, religion, botany and natural history, erotic literature, urban planning, dining, satire and comedywhere odours, aromas, scents and stenches were rich and versatile components of the ancient sensorium. The first comprehensive introduction to the role of smell in the history, literature and society of classical antiquity, Smell and the Ancient Senses explores and probes the ways that the olfactory 4.1 Funerary wreath of immortelles from Hawara, Egypt. 4.2 Mosaic depicting the abduction of Persephone. 6.1 Main outlet of the Cloaca Maxima into the Tiber. 6.2 Reconstruction of a house kitchen from Pompeii with the toilet beside the counter. 6.3 Forum Latrine at Ostia. 6.4 One of the dead mules in the House of the Chaste Lovers (IX.12.6), Pompeii. 6.5 Downpipe in the House of the Double Atrium, Herculaneum (VI.29). 6.6 Embedded dolia for oil at the Villa Regina near Pompeii. 6.7 Bakery of Modestus at Pompeii (VII.1.36). 6.8 Fullery of Stephanus at Pompeii (I.6.7). 6.9 Stabian Baths at Pompeii (VII.1.8.15-17.50-51), female section, caldarium tub. 6.10 Main altar in front of the Temple of Jupiter in the forum at Pompeii (VII.8.1). 10.1 Collection of glass bottles on display at The Corning Museum of Glass. 10.2a Rectangular ceramic incense shovel from Sepphoris. 10.2b Oval-shaped ceramic incense shovel from Sepphoris. 11.1 Fifth-century ivory incense box decorated with Hermes awarding the apple to Aphrodite. 11.2 Tenth-century ivory relief showing the death of the Virgin Mary. 11.3 Seventh-century incense burner carved with images of Jesus's life. 12.1 Cabinet displaying modern marble and plaster noses that had been affixed to noseless portraits in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. 12.2 Basalt bust of Germanicus with its nose chiselled off. 12.3 Gold solidus of Justinian II Rhinotmetos. 12.4 The "Carmagnola Head",
Knowledge, Text and Practice in Ancient Technical Writing
Starting with Xenophon in the Oeconomicus, ancient male authors have expressed concern at women u... more Starting with Xenophon in the Oeconomicus, ancient male authors have expressed concern at women using cosmetics and adorning themselves. A passage of Lucian’s Dialogue of the Courtesans is only one text among many conveying an anti-cosmetic message: After all, one could perhaps put up with the conduct of the men. But the women -! That is another thing women are keen about - to have educated men living in their households on a salary and following their litters. They count it as an embellishment if they are said to be cultured, to have an interest in philosophy and to write songs that are hardly inferior to Sappho’s. To that end they too trail hired rhetoricians and grammarians and philosophers along, and listen to their lectures - when? It is ludicrous! - either while their toilets are being made and their hair dressed, or at dinner; at other times they are too busy! And often while the philosopher is delivering a discourse, the maid comes in and hands her a note from her lover, so that the lecture on chastity is kept waiting until she has written a reply to the lover and hurries back to hear it. In addition to reminding us that all women are by definition voraciously sexual, this passage suggests, in ironic tones, that for these creatures, beauty and philosophical knowledge were two types of embellishment. Lucian’s woman does not perceive the difference between true and false beauty. And because she does not understand this, instead of writing verse or philosophical thoughts, she ends up writing to her lover, thus misusing any education she may have. Writing, knowledge, cosmetics and gender relationships are the themes explored in this chapter, which deals with the cosmetic recipes that have been preserved in Greek and Latin, the bulk of which are to be found in encyclopaedias and medical texts. Indeed, whilst only five recipes are preserved from Ovid’s poem Medicamina faciei femineae, hundreds, probably even thousands, have come down to us through medical and scientific treatises. Indeed, it is difficult to find a major medical compilation that does not contain cosmetic recipes
A Cultural History of Women in Antiquity, 2013
Between the civic doctor and self-help came a great variety of healers-circuit doctors going roun... more Between the civic doctor and self-help came a great variety of healers-circuit doctors going round the countryside from a home base in a market town, wise women, magicians, druggists, faith healers and quacks.. .. Our literary texts play down magical and folk healing: the papyri and the long survival of such remedies reveal that for many people such treatments had some value and, possibly, were all that was accessible. 1
Medicine and Markets in the Graeco-Roman World and Beyond, 2020
The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History, 2017
Historians who study infertility tend to focus – quite naturally – on human females. Studying the... more Historians who study infertility tend to focus – quite naturally – on human females. Studying the same issue in relation to plants, however, can offer new insights into the question and help challenge assumptions, especially since ancient women were often compared to fields awaiting fertilization. In this chapter, I examine the ways in which ancient scholars explained plant infertility; that is, a plant’s inability to bear fruits to maturity (rather than the complete inability to produce seed). Farmers were usually seen as responsible for this infertility; they lacked the knowledge and skill to make their crops fructify. Thus, while the female earth was the (in)fertile principle in plant generation, the ultimate blame fell on the male farmer. I argue that the same principle applied in human generation: men were by nature infertile – they could not carry children to maturity – but they had a crucial role in helping women to become fertile and make their family flourish.
The funerary monument of Phanostrate is the earliest known monument commemorating a woman who was... more The funerary monument of Phanostrate is the earliest known monument commemorating a woman who was a midwife (maia) and physician (iatros); it dates to the mid-fourth century B.C. In this paper, I examine Phanostrate’s assertion that she ‘caused pain to no-one’ in the context of medical ethics found in the Hippocratic Corpus. This statement is reminiscent of one of the clauses of the Hippocratic Oath, where the student of medicine swears to keep patients from ‘harm and injustice’. It also brings to mind the famous ‘do no harm’ principle, which is expressed in the Hippocratic Epidemics. The phrasing of Phanostrate’s stele, however, is somewhat unusual. She claims that she has been lupēra, painful to no-one. The adjective lupēros is not used frequently in the Hippocratic Corpus, but it does appear in the opening section of On Winds, where the author states that the art of medicine can be painful to those who practice it. I reflect on the nature of the ‘pain’ that medicine and its pract...
Hippocratic Recipes' is the first extended study of the pharmacological recipes included in the H... more Hippocratic Recipes' is the first extended study of the pharmacological recipes included in the Hippocratic Corpus. The recipes, found mostly in the gynaecological and nosological treatises, are here examined both from a philological and a sociocultural point of view. Drawing on studies in the fields of classics, social history of medicine, and anthropology, this book offers new insights into the production and use of pharmacological knowledge in the classical world. In particular, it assesses the deep interactions between oral and written traditions in the transmission of this knowledge. Recipes are addressed as texts, but the existence of ‘missing links’ in the written tradition are acknowledged.
Brepols Publishers eBooks, 2023
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Smell and the Ancient Senses, 2014
From flowers and perfumes to urban sanitation and personal hygiene, smella sense that is simultan... more From flowers and perfumes to urban sanitation and personal hygiene, smella sense that is simultaneously sublime and animalistichas played a pivotal role in western culture and thought. Greek and Roman writers and thinkers lost no opportunity to connect the smells that bombarded their senses to the social, political and cultural status of the individuals and environments that they encountered: godly incense and burning sacrifices, seductive scents, aromatic cuisines, stinking bodies, pungent farmyards and festering back-streets. The cultural study of smell has largely focused on pollution, transgression and propriety, but the olfactory sense came into play in a wide range of domains and activities: ancient medicine and philosophy, religion, botany and natural history, erotic literature, urban planning, dining, satire and comedywhere odours, aromas, scents and stenches were rich and versatile components of the ancient sensorium. The first comprehensive introduction to the role of smell in the history, literature and society of classical antiquity, Smell and the Ancient Senses explores and probes the ways that the olfactory 4.1 Funerary wreath of immortelles from Hawara, Egypt. 4.2 Mosaic depicting the abduction of Persephone. 6.1 Main outlet of the Cloaca Maxima into the Tiber. 6.2 Reconstruction of a house kitchen from Pompeii with the toilet beside the counter. 6.3 Forum Latrine at Ostia. 6.4 One of the dead mules in the House of the Chaste Lovers (IX.12.6), Pompeii. 6.5 Downpipe in the House of the Double Atrium, Herculaneum (VI.29). 6.6 Embedded dolia for oil at the Villa Regina near Pompeii. 6.7 Bakery of Modestus at Pompeii (VII.1.36). 6.8 Fullery of Stephanus at Pompeii (I.6.7). 6.9 Stabian Baths at Pompeii (VII.1.8.15-17.50-51), female section, caldarium tub. 6.10 Main altar in front of the Temple of Jupiter in the forum at Pompeii (VII.8.1). 10.1 Collection of glass bottles on display at The Corning Museum of Glass. 10.2a Rectangular ceramic incense shovel from Sepphoris. 10.2b Oval-shaped ceramic incense shovel from Sepphoris. 11.1 Fifth-century ivory incense box decorated with Hermes awarding the apple to Aphrodite. 11.2 Tenth-century ivory relief showing the death of the Virgin Mary. 11.3 Seventh-century incense burner carved with images of Jesus's life. 12.1 Cabinet displaying modern marble and plaster noses that had been affixed to noseless portraits in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. 12.2 Basalt bust of Germanicus with its nose chiselled off. 12.3 Gold solidus of Justinian II Rhinotmetos. 12.4 The "Carmagnola Head",
Knowledge, Text and Practice in Ancient Technical Writing
Starting with Xenophon in the Oeconomicus, ancient male authors have expressed concern at women u... more Starting with Xenophon in the Oeconomicus, ancient male authors have expressed concern at women using cosmetics and adorning themselves. A passage of Lucian’s Dialogue of the Courtesans is only one text among many conveying an anti-cosmetic message: After all, one could perhaps put up with the conduct of the men. But the women -! That is another thing women are keen about - to have educated men living in their households on a salary and following their litters. They count it as an embellishment if they are said to be cultured, to have an interest in philosophy and to write songs that are hardly inferior to Sappho’s. To that end they too trail hired rhetoricians and grammarians and philosophers along, and listen to their lectures - when? It is ludicrous! - either while their toilets are being made and their hair dressed, or at dinner; at other times they are too busy! And often while the philosopher is delivering a discourse, the maid comes in and hands her a note from her lover, so that the lecture on chastity is kept waiting until she has written a reply to the lover and hurries back to hear it. In addition to reminding us that all women are by definition voraciously sexual, this passage suggests, in ironic tones, that for these creatures, beauty and philosophical knowledge were two types of embellishment. Lucian’s woman does not perceive the difference between true and false beauty. And because she does not understand this, instead of writing verse or philosophical thoughts, she ends up writing to her lover, thus misusing any education she may have. Writing, knowledge, cosmetics and gender relationships are the themes explored in this chapter, which deals with the cosmetic recipes that have been preserved in Greek and Latin, the bulk of which are to be found in encyclopaedias and medical texts. Indeed, whilst only five recipes are preserved from Ovid’s poem Medicamina faciei femineae, hundreds, probably even thousands, have come down to us through medical and scientific treatises. Indeed, it is difficult to find a major medical compilation that does not contain cosmetic recipes
A Cultural History of Women in Antiquity, 2013
Between the civic doctor and self-help came a great variety of healers-circuit doctors going roun... more Between the civic doctor and self-help came a great variety of healers-circuit doctors going round the countryside from a home base in a market town, wise women, magicians, druggists, faith healers and quacks.. .. Our literary texts play down magical and folk healing: the papyri and the long survival of such remedies reveal that for many people such treatments had some value and, possibly, were all that was accessible. 1
Medicine and Markets in the Graeco-Roman World and Beyond, 2020
The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History, 2017
Historians who study infertility tend to focus – quite naturally – on human females. Studying the... more Historians who study infertility tend to focus – quite naturally – on human females. Studying the same issue in relation to plants, however, can offer new insights into the question and help challenge assumptions, especially since ancient women were often compared to fields awaiting fertilization. In this chapter, I examine the ways in which ancient scholars explained plant infertility; that is, a plant’s inability to bear fruits to maturity (rather than the complete inability to produce seed). Farmers were usually seen as responsible for this infertility; they lacked the knowledge and skill to make their crops fructify. Thus, while the female earth was the (in)fertile principle in plant generation, the ultimate blame fell on the male farmer. I argue that the same principle applied in human generation: men were by nature infertile – they could not carry children to maturity – but they had a crucial role in helping women to become fertile and make their family flourish.
The funerary monument of Phanostrate is the earliest known monument commemorating a woman who was... more The funerary monument of Phanostrate is the earliest known monument commemorating a woman who was a midwife (maia) and physician (iatros); it dates to the mid-fourth century B.C. In this paper, I examine Phanostrate’s assertion that she ‘caused pain to no-one’ in the context of medical ethics found in the Hippocratic Corpus. This statement is reminiscent of one of the clauses of the Hippocratic Oath, where the student of medicine swears to keep patients from ‘harm and injustice’. It also brings to mind the famous ‘do no harm’ principle, which is expressed in the Hippocratic Epidemics. The phrasing of Phanostrate’s stele, however, is somewhat unusual. She claims that she has been lupēra, painful to no-one. The adjective lupēros is not used frequently in the Hippocratic Corpus, but it does appear in the opening section of On Winds, where the author states that the art of medicine can be painful to those who practice it. I reflect on the nature of the ‘pain’ that medicine and its pract...
Aestimatio: Critical Reviews in the History of Science, 2015
Théophraste. Les causes des phénomènes végétaux. Tome I. Livres I et II edited and translated by ... more Théophraste. Les causes des phénomènes végétaux. Tome I. Livres I et II edited and translated by Suzanne Amigues
In: Smell and the ancient senses, edited by Mark Bradley, London: Routledge, 17-29 , 2014
In: Rabinowitz, Nancy Sorkin and McHardy, Fiona eds. From Abortion to Pederasty: Addressing Difficult Topics in the Classics Classroom. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, pp. 71–91. , 2014
The topic of ancient medicine is one that confronts both students and their teachers with a set o... more The topic of ancient medicine is one that confronts both students and their teachers with a set of difficult issues. All those present in the classroom share the experience of living in a body, whether or not they have reflected on the extent to which their body is their "self," or whether the self inhabits the body; indeed, the subject of ancient medicine itself provides an opportunity to reflect on the philosophical issues related to current perceptions of mind-body dualism. For some, however, due to the nature of the material investigated, the topics covered, and the questions raised in class, ancient medicine will prove to be a particularly disturbing or challenging subject, sometimes at a very personal level. It is the teacher's job to communicate the subject in a mature and professional manner that does not cause the student to cease to engage due to feeling in some way "offended." 1 As three women who have taught in different universities in the UK, we have chosen here to present the results of our discussions on how we teach emotive subjects like abortion, euthanasia, birth control, and embryotomy-the process of cutting a fetus into parts so that it can be extracted from the womb-in our Greek and Roman medicine classes. We are interested in how one presents such topics to students without shying away from the realities of past medical 1.The issue of "offense" is a pedagogically interesting one; learning may come precisely by having one's core values challenged, but if this is taken too far then the learner may simply refuse to engage.
In: A. Verbanck-Piérard, N. Massar and D. Frère (eds), Parfums de l'Antiquité: La rose et l'encens en Méditerranée, Mariemont: Musée Royal de Mariemont, 227–232., 2008
reference-global.com
Page 1. A recipe for a headache: Translating and interpreting ancient Greek and Roman remedies La... more Page 1. A recipe for a headache: Translating and interpreting ancient Greek and Roman remedies Laurence MV Totelin (Cardiff University) The corpus of Greek and Latin pharmacological material is fascinating and large, yet relatively neglected by classical scholars. ...
I have written several posts for the 'Recipes Project', which is an international collaborative p... more I have written several posts for the 'Recipes Project', which is an international collaborative project on the history of recipes. Since January 2015, I have become one of the editors of the Project.
This is my personal blog, where I write about my research and how it matters to me, my family and... more This is my personal blog, where I write about my research and how it matters to me, my family and friends. I also dabble in recreating ancient medicines and cosmetics.
In this post, I examine the use of deer parts in ancient medicine.
In this blog, we look at a historical story of a lady who suffered from extremely severe pregnanc... more In this blog, we look at a historical story of a lady who suffered from extremely severe pregnancy sickness.
Isis, Jan 1, 2010
Scholarly biographies of Mithradates VI Eupator Dionysus, King of Pontus, alleged pharmacological... more Scholarly biographies of Mithradates VI Eupator Dionysus, King of Pontus, alleged pharmacological experimenter and Rome's most tenacious enemy in the first century bce, are very few. Since Théodore Reinach wrote his monumental biography, Mithridate ...
The British Journal for the History of Science, Jan 1, 2010
The British Journal for the History of Science, Jan 1, 2004
The Classical Review, Jan 1, 2007
Aristotle's remarks on females in his biological treatises have often been read as t... more Aristotle's remarks on females in his biological treatises have often been read as the product of ideological, misogynist bias. Through a careful review of Aristotle's key texts on females, Mayhew undermines this claim, and argues that Aristotle's scientiμc enterprise was most ...
Social History of Medicine, Jan 1, 2009
Jessica Kelly Royal College of Art doi:10.1093/shm/hkn076 Advance Access published 24 October 200... more Jessica Kelly Royal College of Art doi:10.1093/shm/hkn076 Advance Access published 24 October 2008 ... Peregrine Horden, Hospitals and Healing from Antiquity to the Later Middle Ages, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2008. Pp. xii 1 338. £65.00. ISBN 978 0 7546 ...
The British Journal for the History of Science, Jan 1, 2004
... A History of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. By Sophie Forgan 479 ... MARIA ... more ... A History of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. By Sophie Forgan 479 ... MARIA YAMALIDOU Kavala MARIA MICHELA SASSI, The Science of Man in Ancient Greece. Translated by Paul Tucker. With a Foreword by Sir Geoffrey Lloyd. ...
Medical History, Jan 1, 2006
The XIth International Hippocrates Colloquium focused on the contexts in which the Hippocratic te... more The XIth International Hippocrates Colloquium focused on the contexts in which the Hippocratic texts were written and read. The organiser, Philip van der Eijk, chose this broad theme in order to encourage contributions from a wide range of disciplines. The proceedings, divided ...
This panel brings together a selection of papers on the representation and understanding of bodil... more This panel brings together a selection of papers on the representation and understanding of bodily fluids in the ancient world. Laurence Totelin's contribution explores the association
We are pleased to announce a three-day conference on the history of medicine and pharmacology, Tr... more We are pleased to announce a three-day conference on the history of medicine and pharmacology, Traditions of Materia Medica (300 BCE – 1300 CE), that we will convene (digitally) from 16-18 June 2021 at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
The theme of the conference is the transmission of pharmacology (in its many forms) in the immediate vicinity of the writings of Galen of Pergamum: before Galen, during the Hellenistic period after the time of Herophilus (3rd century BCE), when new directions and configurations of pharmacological concepts, practice and writing emerged as a result of the growing acceptance of the use of drugs in medicine; and in Galen’s work and beyond, when the intensification of the study of pharmacology brought about by Galen’s work was transferred to the great medical ‘encyclopaedists,’ Oribasius (4th century CE), Aetius of Amida (5th / 6th century CE) and Paul of Aegina (6th / 7th century CE) and beyond. The conference, therefore, presents a case study in ‘momentum’ as a central concept in the transfer of knowledge in ancient Greek medicine.
The conference brings together scholars working on ancient Greek, Demotic, Coptic, Latin and Arabic pharmacology and medicine, and speakers will present methods of studying these traditions currently being developed in the history and philosophy of science, philology, botany, chemistry, archaeology, lexicography and digital humanities.
Conference website: https://www.sfb-episteme.de/en/veranstaltungen/Vorschau/2021/A03_traditions-of-materia-medica.html
To register, email: traditionsofmateriamedica@gmail.com with your affiliation and research interests. Places are limited.
Organized by Sean Coughlin, Christine Salazar and Elizaveta Shcherbakova.
Presented as part of SFB 980 Episteme in Motion, Project A03: The Transfer of Medical Episteme in the ‘Encyclopaedic’ Compilations of Late Antiquity (Guidance: Prof. Dr. Philip van der Eijk)
Funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)
– SFB 980 “Episteme in Bewegung. Wissenstransfer von der Alten Welt bis in die Frühe Neuzeit” –Projekt-ID 191249397 in partnership with Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
MPhil Essay Cambridge, 2002
We still do not know exactly what pictures are, what their relation to language is, how they oper... more We still do not know exactly what pictures are, what their relation to language is, how they operate on observer and on the world, how their history is to be understood, and what is to be done about them. Mitchell (1994): 13. This essay examines the figural illustrations to the manuscript O. 2.48 in the Wren Library, Trinity College (Cambridge).1 This manuscript dates from the late 13 th or early 14 th century and is probably of German origin. 2 It can be classified as a group of treatises on materia medica or, in other words, as a collection of herbals, i.e. "a series of descriptions of plants (sometimes including animal and mineral substances) regarded as medicinal, accompanied by medical, pharmacological, and scientific data concerning their names, uses, habitat, and related information."3 Ms. O. 2.48 belongs to the most important tradition of writings on materia medica in the Latin Middle Ages: the "Herbarius corpus" tradition.4 It contains a very large number of illustrations, between 800 and 1000, drawn by different hands; some of them are "very rough", to use the words of James, the cataloguer of the Wren Collection.5 The majority of drawings are plant or animal illustrations but there are also 38 figuralillustration that will form the topic of this essay.