Friday, February 10, 2017

Moses Maimonides Medical Writing and works on Maimonidean Medicine.


           Moses Maimonides was one of the major figures in the field of Arab and Jewish medieval medicine. Despite uncertainty about the nature of his medical training in the historical record it is clear that by the time he had arrived in Egypt he had as thorough a training as was available at the time. He appears to have had an eidetic memory. In Egypt his knowledge of halakhah was such that he quickly rose to the position of an unassailable poskin. David Maimonides had been the breadwinner of the extended family. He was a trader in rare gems and when he was lost at sea his stock in trade was lost with him. After the death of his father and shortly afterwards the death of his brother as sea Moses was forced from the simpler path that his life might have taken and became a professional physician. His fame grew over time and he became the physician to the court of Saladin. He acted as Saladin's personal physician, but was also the physician to all of Saladin's family and harem as well as the high officials of state. Such was the weight laid upon him by his medical practice that between the court and the public Moses worked from early morning until as late as two hours after sunset seeing patients. His communal service to the Jewish community was performed only on Shabbat and was as exhausting as his regimen as a healer.
           Moses Maimonides best know works during the medieval period were his own Medical aphorisms and his anthology of extracts from Galen. His Treatise on Poisins was also respected and reprinted several times in the era printed era. His greatest significance comes from his role as a transmitter across the divide from the ancient world to the emerging Arab and subsequently European scholarly world and in his role as the ideal of the model physician. He was an advocate in his time of what we might characterize as holistic, patient centered care (as well as his advocacy of what we now call, "well care," rehabilitative medicine and occupational medicine).
           We were recently able to get from amoung a large trove of books on Jewish medicine copies of all of the volumes of Maimonides Medical Writings. The set, edited primarily by Fred Rosner, made all of Maimonides known medical works in English translation. We have a limited number of complete sets. This set includes the works mentioned above as well as The Three Treatises on Health, Commentary on the Aphorims of Hippocrates, the Treatise on Asthma, as well as the Glossary of Drug Names, which was though to be lost until a manuscript was located in the early twentieth century. All of these volumes are available as part of the full set or individually. Because of short quantities, the fifth volume, The Art of Cure. Extracts from Galen, is available only as part of a complete set. Includes in this post we also offer two other titles by Fred Rosner on Maimonides. Further posts on Jewish medicine are forthcoming shortly (after 2/10/2017).


Maimonides, Moses. Maimonides' Medical Writings. Seven Volume Set.  1.  Treatises on Poisons, Hemorrhoids, Cohabitation. 2.  Maimonides' Commentary on the Aphorims of Hippocrates. 3.  The Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides'. 4. Moses Maimonides' Three Treatises on Health. 5.  The Art of Cure. Extracts from Galen. 6. Moses Maimonides' Treatise on Asthma.  7.  Moses Maimonides' Glossary of Drug Names. Haifa, The Maimonides Research Institute, 1984-1992. Octavos in dust jacket, vi, 185 pp., index + xviii, 218 pp., bibliography, index + xxviii, 486 pp., bibliography by Jacob I. Deinstag, notes, index + xvi, 256 pp., bibliography by Jacob I. Dienstag, index + viii, 206 pp., bibliography prepared by Jacob I. Dienstag, index + x, 176 pp., bibliography prepared by Jacob I. Dienstag, index + xxxii, 394 pp., bibliography by Jacob I. Deinstag, Arabic terms by Joseph Dana, indexes. Hardbound. Very Good. Translated from Arabi Manuscripts and Annotated by Uriel S. Barzel. "A Word from the Dean," by Yehuda Assaf. Preface by Fred Rosner. (82764)     $300.00

Maimonides, Moses. Maimonides' Medical Writings 1.  Treatises on Poisons, Hemorrhoids, Cohabitation. Haifa, The Maimonides Research Institute, 1984 [1988]. Second Printing. Octavo in dust jacket, vi, 185 pp., index. Hardbound. Very Good. Translated and annotated by Fred Rosner. "A Word from the Dean," by Yehuda Assaf. Preface by Fred Rosner. (82763)     $35.00

Maimonides, Moses. Maimonides' Medical Writings 2.  Maimonides' Commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. Haifa, The Maimonides Research Institute, 1987. Octavo in edgeworn dust jacket, xviii, 218 pp., bibliography, index. Hardbound. Very Good. Translated and annotated by Fred Rosner. "A Word from the Dean," by Yehuda Assaf. Preface by Fred Rosner. Foreword by J.O. Leibowitz.. (82761)      $35.00

Maimonides, Moses. Maimonides' Medical Writings 3.  The Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides'. Haifa, The Maimonides Research Institute, 1989. Octavo in dust jacket, xxviii, 486 pp., bibliography by Jacob I. Deinstag, notes, index. Hardbound. Very Good. Translated and annotated by Fred Rosner. "A Word from the Dean," by Yehuda Assaf. Preface by Fred Rosner. (82762)     $50.00

Maimonides, Moses. Maimonides' Medical Writings 4. Moses Maimonides' Three Treatises on Health. Haifa, The Maimonides Research Institute, 1990. Octavo in dust jacket, xvi, 256 pp., bibliography by Jacob I. Dienstag, index. Hardbound. Very Good. Translated and annotated by Fred Rosner. "A Word from the Dean," by Yehuda Assaf. Preface by Fred Rosner. Foreword by Samuel S. Kottek. Includes the works Treatise on the Regimen of Health, Treatise on the Causes of Symptoms and Laws of Human Temperaments. (79937)      $35.00

Maimonides, Moses. Maimonides' Medical Writings 6. Moses Maimonides' Treatise on Asthma. Haifa, The Maimonides Research Institute, 1994. Octavo in dust jacket, x, 176 pp., bibliography prepared by Jacob I. Dienstag, index. Hardbound. Very Good. Translated and annotated by Fred Rosner. "A Word from the Dean," by Yehuda Assaf. Preface by Fred Rosner. (82765)     $18.00

Maimonides, Moses. Maimonides' Medical Writings 7.  Moses Maimonides' Glossary of Drug Names. Haifa, The Maimonides Research Institute, 1995. Octavo in dust jacket, xxxii, 394 pp., bibliography by Jacob I. Deinstag, Arabic terms by Joseph Dana, indexes. Hardbound. Very Good. Translated and annotated from Max Meyerhof's French Edition by Fred Rosner. "A Word from the Dean," by Yehuda Assaf. Preface by Fred Rosner. (82766)     $95.00

Rosner, Fred. Medical Encyclopedia of Moses Maimonides. Northvale, New Jersey, Jason Aronson, Inc., 1998. ISBN: 0-7657-5997-7. Octavo, glossy printed paper covered boards, xxiv, 261 pp., index. Hardbound. Very Good.  (15587)     $19.95

Rosner, Fred. The Medical Legacy of Moses Maimonides. Hoboken, NJ, KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1998. ISBN: 0-88125-573-4. Octavo, glossy paper covered covers, xii, 308 pp., bibliography, index. Hardbound. Very Good.  (82503)     $30.00

My introductory comments are derived from my readings from works by Harry Friedenwald, David Kraemer and Fred Rosner none of whom are responsible for any errors on my part.

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