Paul of Aegina

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul of Aegina or Paulus Aegineta (625?–690?) was an Aegina-born 7th-century Byzantine Greek physician best known for writing the medical encyclopedia Medical Compendium in Seven Books (Greek: Epitomes iatrikes biblio hepta). For many years in the Byzantine Empire, this work contained the sum of all Western medical knowledge and was unrivaled in its accuracy and completeness.

The sixth book on surgery in particular was referenced in Europe and the Arab world throughout the Middle Ages and is of special interest for surgical history. The whole work in the original Greek was published in Venice in 1528, and another edition appeared in Basel in 1538. Several Latin translations have been published and it was first translated into English, with commentary by Dr. Francis Adams sometime between 1844 and 1848.