Arnaldus de Villa Nova

Arnaldus de Villa Nova (also called Arnaldus de Villanueva, Arnaldus Villanovanus, Arnaud de Ville-Neuve or Arnau de Vilanova, c. 1235–1311) was an alchemist, astrologer and physician.

He was born in Valencia, and appears to have been of Catalan origin, and to have studied chemistry, medicine, physics, and also Arabic philosophy. After having lived at the court of Aragon and taught many years in Montpellier School of Medicine, he went to Paris, where he gained a considerable reputation; but he incurred the enmity of the ecclesiastics and was forced to flee, finally finding an asylum in Sicily. About 1313 he was summoned to Avignon by Pope Clement V, who was ill, but he died on the voyage off the coast of Genoa.^[1]

He is credited with translating a number of medical texts from Arabic, including works by Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Qusta ibn Luqa (Costa ben Luca), and Galen.^[2] Many alchemical writings, including Thesaurus Thesaurorum or Rosarius Philosophorum, Novum Lumen, and Flos Florum, are also ascribed to him, but they are of very doubtful authenticity. Collected editions of them were published at Lyon in 1504 and 1532 (with a biography by Symphorianus Campegius), at Basel in 1585, at Frankfurt in 1603, and at Lyon in 1686. He is also the reputed author of various medical works, including Breviarium Practicae. Among his achievements was the discovery of carbon monoxide and pure alcohol.

Contents 1 Liber de Vinis 2 See also 3 Footnotes 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External links

Liber de Vinis

The first wine book to be mass circulated was de Villanova's Liber de Vinis. Written from a predominantly medical viewpoint, de Villanova's work covers a range of wine topics from the best circumstance for people to taste wine "...in the morning after they have rinsed their mouths and eaten three or four bites of bread dipped in water", and never on a full or empty stomach, as well as remedies for wines that may have gone flat or those with bad smells. Wine is also recommended as treatment of various illnesses such as dementia and sinus troubles.^[3]

See also

• Brazen Head
• Latin translations of the 12th century

Footnotes

1. ^ Fernando Salmón (2010). Robert E. Bjork. ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-19-866262-4. 
2. ^ D. Campbell, Arabian Medicine and Its Influence on the Middle Ages, p. 5.
3. ^ Hugh Johnson, Vintage: The Story of Wine pg 126. Simon and Schuster 1989

References

See J. B. Haureau in the Histoire litteraire de la France (1881), vol. 28; E. Lalande, Arnaud de Villeneuve, sa vie et ses oeuvres (Paris, 1896). A list of writings is given by J. Ferguson in his Bibliotheca Chemica (1906). See also U. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources hist., &c., Bio-bibliographie (Paris, 1903).

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Further reading

• McVaugh, Michael (1970). "Arnald of Villanova". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 289–291. ISBN 0684101149. 

External links

• http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15429c.htm
• http://www.luc.edu/publications/medieval/vol4/daly.html

Works of Arnaldus:

• Excerpta medica - Mscr.Dresd.C.278. [S.l.] 1500, Online-Ausgabe der Sächsischen Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden
• Opus aureum. Frankfurt a. Mayn 1604, Online-Ausgabe der Sächsischen Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden
• Hermetis Trismegisti Phoenicum Aegyptiorum Sed et aliarum Gentium Monarchae Conditoris ... sive Tabula Smaragdina. [Leipzig] 1657, Online-Ausgabe der Sächsischen Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden
• Hermetischer Rosenkrantz, Das ist: Vier schöne, außerlesene Chymische Tractätlein. [Hamburg] 1682, Online-Ausgabe der Sächsischen Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden

Persondata
Name	Villa Nova, Arnaldus de
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Date of birth	1235
Place of birth
Date of death	1313
Place of death