Contributions of monastic medicine: from Hippocratic School to Salernitan Medical School. De urinis et pulsis secundum praecepta dionisi.

Due to the intense relationship between Byzantium and the Abbey of Montecassino, which lasted for about three centuries, some of the Hippocratic Medical Texts were gathered by the Roman Catholic Church during the last years of the Roman Empire. Some texts were transferred directly from the Byzantine Empire to the abbey. Some of the earliest texts which were written in Greek and Latin have been lost; afterwards they were only written in Latin and in Beneventano-Cassinese type. They constituted the basis of medical assistance that was given in the "ospitia" near the monastery to sick monks and pilgrims needing treatment on their way from Rome to Monte Sant'Angelo of Gargano. The Diuresis et pulsis secundum praecepta Dionisi is kept in Cod. Cas. No. 69 (10th century), pp 551-562, in the Montecassino archive. The author of this text tried to perform a urine examination considering the clinical signs, such as high temperature and pulse examination. The text is thought to have been written by Dionysius, a Hippocratic physician and contemporary of Herophilus, who lived around the 4th century BC. This text was read again in the Salernitan Medical School and compared with other texts from Arabic countries also influenced by Hippocrates. Copyright 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel