Misplaced Pages

Demetrios Pepagomenos or Demetrius Pepagomenus (Greek: Δημήτριος Πεπαγωμένος, 1200–1300) was a Byzantine Greek savant who resided in Constantinople. He became a physician, a veterinary physician, and a naturalist.

Biography

Court physician

During the 13th century, Demetrios Pepagomenos became the court physician of Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologos (r. 1259–1261) and was commissioned by the Byzantine emperor to compose a work on gout. In his Σύνταγμα περὶ τῆς ποδάγρας, Pepagomenos considered gout a diathesis caused by a defective elimination of excreta. Although Demetrios Pepagomenos is credited for providing a general description of gout, it was John Chumnus (utilizing Pepagomenos's work) who specifically established a proper diet for treating the condition.

Veterinary physician

As a veterinary physician, Demetrios Pepagomenos wrote a treatise on feeding and nursing hawks (specifically gyrfalcon) entitled Περὶ τῆς τῶν ἰεράκων ἀνατροφῆς τε καἰ θεραπεὶας. He also wrote a treatise on the care and treatment of canines entitled Cynosophion although it is presumed that this particular work was perhaps written by Caelius Aurelianus, a 3rd-century author and translator.

Translation and publication of works

In 1517, Demetrios Pepagomenos's works on gout were translated and published in Latin by the great post-Byzantine humanist, Marcus Musurus, in Venice. They were also published in Paris in 1558.

In Mazaris

Demetrios Pepagomenos is lampooned in a 15th-century satire, Mazaris' Journey to Hades, as a doctor who poisoned himself. Mazaris says he had two sons: the older, Saromates ("Lizard Eyes"), also a doctor, and Theodosios the Little Stinker, a social climber. When Emperor Manuel II Palaeologos (r. 1391–1425) visited the Morea in 1415, Pepagomenos was a doctor in his retinue. He was left at Mystras to serve as court doctor to Theodore II Palaiologos, Despot of the Morea (r. 1407–1443). In that capacity, he attended the childbed of Cleofe Malatesta Palaiogina in 1433. At her subsequent death, he delivered a funeral oration.

Pepagomenos may have been the copyist of the medical manuscript Paris gr. 2256. He was the recipient of letters from John Eugenikos, and a correspondent of Cardinal Bessarion.

See also

• Byzantine medicine

References

Citations

1. Karasszon 1988, p. 441.
2. Graindor et al. 1978, p. 35.
3. ^ Sarton 1953, p. 1095.
4. Fryde 2000, p. 354; Taton 1966, p. 450; Bury & Hussey 1966, p. 291; Porter & Rousseau 2000, p. 20.
5. Bury & Hussey 1966, p. 291; Dvorjetski 2007, pp. 415–416.
6. ^ Karasszon 1988, p. 115.
7. Geanakoplos 1976, p. 31.
8. Copland 1845, "Gout - Pathological Conditions", p. 48.
9. Mazaris & Seminar Classics 609 1975, pp. 34, 38.
10. Garland 2007, pp. 191, 199, 212, 213 (Note #68).
11. Schmalzbauer 1971, pp. 223–240.
12. Mazaris & Seminar Classics 609 1975, p. 108 (Note #34.26).
13. Lambros 1912, p. 158.
14. Garland 2007, p. 213 (Note #68).

Sources

• Bury, John Bagnell; Hussey, Joan Mervyn (1966). The Cambridge Medieval History (Volume 4, Issue 2). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
• Copland, James (1845). A Dictionary of Practical Medicine: Comprising General Pathology. New York, New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.
• Dvorjetski, Esti (2007). Leisure, Pleasure, and Healing: Spa Culture and Medicine in Ancient Eastern Mediterranean. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-15681-4.
• Fryde, Edmund B. (2000). The Early Palaeologan Renaissance (1261-c. 1360). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 90-04-11714-8.
• Garland, Lynda (2007). "Mazaris's Journey to Hades: Further Reflections and Reappraisal". Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 61. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection: 183–214. ISSN 0070-7546.
• Geanakoplos, Deno John (1976). Byzantine East and Latin West: Two Worlds of Christendom in Middle Ages and Renaissance: Studies in Ecclesiastical and Cultural History. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books. ISBN 0-208-01615-5.
• Graindor, Paul; Grégoire, Henri; Société Belge d'Études Byzantines; Centre National de Recherches Byzantines; Byzantine Institute of America (1978). Byzantion. Vol. 48. Brussels, Belgium: Fondation Byzantine.
• Karasszon, Dénes (1988). A Concise History of Veterinary Medicine. Budapest, Hungary: Akadémiai Kiadó. ISBN 963-05-4610-8.
• Lambros, Spyridon (1912). Παλαιολόγεια καὶ Πελοπονησιακά. Vol. 1. Athens, Greece.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Mazaris; Seminar Classics 609 (1975). Mazaris' Journey to Hades: Or, Interviews with Dead Men about Certain Officials of the Imperial Court. Buffalo, New York: Department of Classics, State University of New York at Buffalo.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Porter, Roy; Rousseau, George Sebastian (2000). Gout: The Patrician Malady. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08274-6.
• Sarton, George (1953). Introduction to the History of Science (Volume 2, Part 2). Baltimore, Maryland: Pub. for the Carnegie Institution of Washington by the Williams & Wilkins Company.
• Schmalzbauer, Gudrun (1971). "Eine bisher unedierte monodie auf Kleope Palaiologina von Demetrios Pepagomenos" (PDF). Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik. 20: 223–240. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
• Taton, René (1966). History of Science: Ancient and Medieval Science. New York, New York: Basic Books Incorporated.

Further reading

• Lazaris, Stavros (2006). "La production nouvelle en médecine vétérinaire sous les Paléologues et l'œuvre cynégétique de Dèmètrios Pépagôménos". In Cacouros, M.; Congourdeau, M.H. (eds.). Philosophie et sciences à Byzance de 1204 à 1453: les textes, les doctrines et leur transmission. Actes de la table ronde organisée au XXe Congrès International d'Etudes Byzantines (Paris, 2001). Leuven, Paris and Dudley, MA: Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oosterse Studies. pp. 225–267.

• Court physicians
• 1200 births
• 1300 deaths
• Byzantine letter writers
• 13th-century Byzantine physicians
• 13th-century Byzantine scientists
• 14th-century Byzantine physicians
• 14th-century Byzantine scientists