On the Causes of Symptoms

The subject of this book is a treatise by Maimonides (1135 - 1204)--Jewish philosopher and at one time physician to the court of Egypt--commonly known as De causis accidentium. The treatise is presented here for the first time in a multilingual critical edition that includes the Hebrew, Arabic and medieval Latin texts as well as commentaries on each of them. The incentive for this publication was the recent discovery of a thirteenth-century Hebrew translation of the treatise, reproduced here in facsimile. Neither the Hebrew nor the Latin texts have previously been published in full. Because the editors have kept in mind the wider issues, this volume is congruent with present-day research on the transmission of ancient knowlege in the Middle Ages. Although his treatise was intended merely to treat specific questions involving a certain patient, Maimonides discusses several medical subjects, such as problems involving the circulatory system, the digestive organs and general dietetics, psychiatry, and specific aspects of physiology. A special feature of the volume is the editors' running commentary, based on the Arabic original as well as on various medieval translations, and designed to clarify some of the obscurities of the text, particularly its medical aspects. The editors suggest that Maimonides may have been familiar with such modern concepts as hemoconcentration and the use of psychotropic drugs.

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