Iatrosophikon: Folklore Remedies From a Cyprus Monastery - Original Text and Parallel Translation of Codex Machairas A. 18 by Priest-Monk Metrophanes (1790-1867) - 2015

Nicosia: Leventis Foundation, 2015. Bilingual (Greek-English) edition. Edited by A. Demetriades. Includes the original text in Greek, translation and comments in English, as well as an Appendix on plant identification. Hard cover, 28 cm, 656 pp., ill.; net weight 1510 gr. ISBN: 9789963732159.

The Iatrosophikon (Book of medical wisdoms), or Codex Machairas A.18, is a collection of folk recipes and treatments that was compiled in the 19th century in a Cyprus monastery. It is the most important and voluminous piece of work of its kind that survives today on the Eastern Mediterranean Island, in the form of its original manuscript, and is kept in the library of the Machairas Monastery, where its author Philotheos lived and served as a healer monk. It is a unique piece of work that provides insight both into the spectrum of diseases afflicting the population in that era and the means available for their treatment. It also provides insight into the health services of the time and the role of the Greek Orthodox Church in the then Ottoman-ruled Island. Handwritten in the Cypriot dialect, through the medium of folklore healing, Codex Machairas A.18 makes as such a significant contribution to both the history and the historiography of 19th century medicine.

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