The De medicina, a 4th/5th-Century Poem of Gallo-Roman Origin, Rediscovered

Abstract

AbstractIn 1536 a short poem with the titleDe medicinawas published in Basel by Janus Cornarius in theeditio princepsof Marcellus Empiricus’De medicamentis liber.1 Cornarius based his edition on the Codex Laudunensis 4202 (9th/10th century), a manuscript which in the centuries after the publication suffered damage, losinginter aliathe preface which contained the only evidence about the author of the work.3 In the course of the following centuries the authorship of the poem was variously ascribed to Vindicianus, Marcellus and Serenus Sammonicus, which gave rise to a protracted polemic in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. In this article the question of authorship will be discussed, followed by a translation and brief commentary on the poem.