The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia (sometimes called the Lorsch Leechbook, Lorscher Arzneibuch or Lorsch Book of Remedies) is an extensive medical manuscript composed around Lorsch Abbey during the era of Charlemagne, likely created around 785. It has been described as the oldest preserved book on monastic medicine from the early medieval West, and the oldest preserved medical book in Germany. The pharmacopoeia, containing 482 recipes, was written under Benedictine auspices in Latin at Lorsch Abbey (today's Bergstraße district, Hesse), probably under Richbod, the abbot of the imperial abbey. Since the beginning of the 11th century, it has been located in Bamberg and is currently preserved in the Bamberg State Library under the call number Msc.Med.1 (old call number: L.III.8). At the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Würzburg, Ulrich Stoll and Gundolf Keil facsimiled, edited, and translated the manuscript into German in a three-year project that was completed in 1989. Since June 2013, the Lorsch Pharmacopoeia has been included by UNESCO on the Memory of the World international register. The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia is the oldest German pharmacopoeia, systematically compiled as a medical compendium.
Origin and history The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia – first so named by the Würzburg medical historian Gundolf Keill – was previously known as the Codex Bamberginsis medicinalis 1 (or Bamberger Codex Med. 1), and was written by several scribes in the Benedictine Abbey of Lorsch. This attribution, along with its dating to the late 8th century, was demonstrated by the palaeographer Bernhard Bischoff in 1964, thanks to its Carolingian minuscule script in the old Lorsch style. The dating of the Lorsch Pharmacopoeia is disputed. It ranges from the late 8th to the early 9th century. Bernhard Bischoff initially dated the manuscript to "between 781 and 783" and "just after 800" then later to "early 9th century“. Gundolf Keil dated its compilation first to 795, later to 792, then back to 790 and eventually spoke about the time "around 788“. Klaus-Dietrich Fischer, a medical historian, contradicted Keil's arguments and preferred the chronological dating of Bischoff. The Bamberg manuscript also contains Old High German glosses originating from the Rhineland. These additions and comments to the recipes (for instance "petriniola id est uuizebluomon" in the Greek-latin plant glossary) signal its continuing usage in the 9th and 10th centuries. The manuscript contains on a half-empty page (folio 42v) the only known (partial) book list of an imperial library from the early Middle Ages, written by Leo of Vercelli (died 1026), the teacher and confidant of Emperor Otto III. This book list allows the history of the Lorsch Pharmacopoeia to be reconstructed. After the early death of Emperor Otto III in 1002, the manuscript came into the possession of his successor, Emperor Henry II, who donated it to the cathedral library of the diocese of Bamberg, which he founded in 1007. From there, the codex, newly bound in 1611 by order of the Cathedral Provost Johann Christoph Neustetter, known as Stürmer, and the Cathedral Dean Hektor von Kotzau, was transferred to the Electorate Library of Bamberg during the secularization in 1803, which is today's Bamberg State Library, where the manuscript is kept under the call number Msc.Med.1. The manuscript, first described in 1831 and known to only a few specialists from 1863, was extensively studied in the 1980s by the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Würzburg. The results of these studies were presented in 1989 during a symposium in Lorsch; in the same year, a two-volume edition featuring a reproduction of the manuscript and a German translation was published. An accessible introduction to the codex was also released in 1989, followed by a dissertation with text, German translation, and a specialized glossary in 1992. Part of the manuscript has been translated into English.
Content, Sources and Arrangement The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia comprises 75 calf parchment sheets measuring 32 × 22.5 cm, densely written in a single column with 32 to 33 lines. Originally, the codex consisted of 107 sheets (the losses occurred after the early medieval period but before 1611). The medical-pharmaceutical manuscript proves to be a systematically arranged compendium, designed as a reference work for the practical everyday work of a monastery physician, as well as an introductory textbook without an independent surgical part. The main section (starting from sheet 17) consists of a collection of 482 recipes of Greek-Roman tradition. It describes the ingredients, production, and application of the drugs. Embedded in this (pharmacographical) recipe collection, which contains both short recipes (Receptarium) and full recipes (called "Antidotarium"), are treatises on the history of medicine and medical ethics. Direct sources that can be identified include the "Physica Plinii" (6th/7th century), Byzantine medicine, and writings from the 7th century by the so-called "Aurelius Aesculapius" or Aurelius-Escolapius or Esculapius (De acutis passionibus by Aurelius, or Caelius Aurelianus, and De acutis et chronicis morbis by Aesculapius,). Indirectly (via Byzantine medicine), the codex also incorporated works of Dioscorides (De Materia Medica, a pharmacographic herbal) and Galen, as well as (via the Physica Plinii) the "Medicina Plinii," which originated in the 4th century. The individual text comprises:
Preface: Defence of the art of medicine (Defensio artis medicinae) In the preface (folio 1r to 5r), the art of healing is defended against the reservations of notable Christians who saw it as an impermissible interference with the divine plan of salvation. The argumentation of this defense or justification of medicine aims to define medical practice as a commandment of Christian-mandated charity. For this purpose, the author relies on authoritative Christian texts of his time.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
