Costanza De Martino | Philumenus’ On Venomous Animals within the Vat. gr. 284

This paper was given as part of the seminar Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries: Researching Ancient Scientific Texts, held on Wednesday, December 4, 2024 at the Center for Hellenic Studies.
Paper begins at 14:57
For more information on the seminar: chs.harvard.ed...
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Philumenus’ On Venomous Animals (2nd-3rd century CE), a toxicological treatise first published by Max Wellmann in 1908 in the Corpus Medicorum Graecorum series, offers a fascinating case study in ancient pharmacological literature. This work only survives in one manuscript (Vat. gr. 284, dated to the 10th-11th century CE), which has been shown to be a copy of a pharmacological handbook meant to provide readers with a comprehensive and easy-to-consult tool.
Since a closer textual examination shows that Vat. gr. 284 actually transmits a synthesis of Philumenus’ On Venomous Animals and another theriological work, the so-called Theriaca, falsely attributed to Dioscorides (1st century CE), my contribution aims at proving that Philumenus’ On Venomous Animals has been edited to fit the handbook’s intentions.
The merging of Philumenus and Ps.-Dioscorides, however, represents only the first layer of a long stratification. A comparison with Philumenus’ indirect and parallel traditions - Aetius of Amida’s Libri Medicinales XIII and Ps.-Aelius Promotus’ On Venomous Beasts - reveals that new materials (such as additional recipes, adjustments to preexisting ones and “magical” remedies) were gradually incorporated into this synthesis according to the evolving needs of the handbook’s users.
In the light of these findings, any attempt to reconstruct Philumenus’ original work on the basis of the Vatican manuscript alone would prove to be unrealistic. The theriological section of Vat. gr. 284 should rather be recognized as a composite work of broader authorship, of which Philumenus represents only one source.