Arnold de Villa Nova on the therapeutic use of human blood / by Joseph Frank Payne.

  • Payne, Joseph Frank, 1840-1910.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Arnold de Villa Nova on the therapeutic use of human blood / by Joseph Frank Payne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    EXTRAIT de „J A N U y f Huitieme Annee, Vllle et IXe Livr. 15 Aout et 15 Septembre 1903. ARNOLD DE VILLA NOVA ON THE THER. HUMAN BLOOD. By JOSEPH FRANK PAYNE, M.D.^ Having lately come across a curious document on I think that although it is not actually unpublished, it may be of some interest to reprint it, in consideration of its bearing on the obscure question of the medicinal use of human blood. I first read the document in a Latin M.S. of the (early part of the?) fifteenth century in my pos- session, the greater part of which refers to other things i), and not finding it in the collected works of Arnold de Villa Nova, I thought it had not been published. But I find it has been printed in the work called Euonymus sive de Remediis secre/is, (Pars Secimda) attributed to Conrad Gesner (Ed. Lugduni 1572, page 289), also in an English version of this work, ’‘’‘The newe Jewell of Health gathered out of the best and most ’’approved authors by Doctor Gesnerus; published in Englishe by George ’’BakeT'' (London 1576), and also in Joannes de Rupescissa, “De Consi- deratione Quintae Essentise” (Basil 1597). The printed texts agree pretty closely with my M.S. The title of this curious production is Epistola domini (magistri) Arnoldi de Villa Nova ad dominum (magistrum) Jacobum de Tolleto. De prsestantia et virtutibus aquae humani sanguinis (vel de sanguine humano). I need not discuss the conflicting accounts of the life of this mysterious personage. According to the most probable tradition he was born in Catalonia about 1235 1312. He is said to have studied in Spain and at Paris, to have taught medicine at Montpellier and afterwards at Paris. It is certain that he was in Rome at the court of the Pope Boni- facius VIII in 1295. The alchymistic writings attributed to him were according to Haeser, probably written by another Arnoldus de Villa Nova, living at Montpellier in the 15th century. This introduces a further com- plexity into the question of the authorship of this letter. Neither the M.S. nor the printed text can be regarded as certainly establishing the authenticity of the letter as actually written by Arnold. Its style certainly differs from that of his recognized works, but it is professedly addressed only to secreti et ellecti^ that is, to a limited circle 1) The most important part of this M.S. is a treatise on the plague. “Tractatus de pestilentia Theobaldi Loneti de Aurigneo, bisuntinensis diocesis provincise Burgundise”, which seems never to have been printed. I can find nothing about the author, and should be glad of any information.