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Ortus medicinae

Jan Baptist van Helmont
  • Latin
  • prose

A collection of works written by Jan Baptist van Helmont of Brussels (d. 1644). The first edition was overseen by his son Franciscus Mercurius and was published in 1648, with later editions appearing in quick succession (1651, 1652, 1655, 1667, 1682, etc.). To historians of Irish medicine, it may be known chiefly for a short passage on the hereditary nature of medicine among families of physicians in 17th-century Ireland and their use of manuscripts for medical knowledge.

From one of the introductory chapters, headed ‘Confessio authoris’ (pp. 11-14):

Memini namque magnates Hyberniae, dare agrum domestico medenti, non quidem qui ab Academiis institutus rediisset: sed sanaret aegros. Habet nempe is librum, ab Atavis sibi relictum, remediis resertum. Adeoque libri haeres, semper agri illius haeres est. codex iste, signa morborum depingit, ac remedia vernacula. feliciusque sanantur infirmi Hyberni, ac longe fortiores sunt, quam Itali, qui pagis singulis, suos habent Medicastros, e cruore miserorum viventes.

Translated by Joyce as follows: “The Irish nobility have in every family a domestic physican, who has a tract of land free for his remuneration, and who is appointed, not on account of the amount of learning he brings away in his head from colleges, but because he can cure disorders. These doctors obtain their medical knowledge chiefly from books belonging to particular families left them by their ancestors, in which are laid down the symptoms of the several diseases, with the remedies annexed; which remedies are the productions of their own country. Accordingly the Irish are better managed in sickness than the Italians, who have a physician in every village.”

Another portion of Irish interest is the chapter about an Irish healer called Butler (Hybernus quidam Butler nomine) whom Van Helmont met concerning a medical cure involving toads.

Author
Helmont (Jan Baptist van)
Helmont (Jan Baptist van)
(1580–1644)
Flemish physician, chemist and philosopher.
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Language
  • Latin
Form
prose (primary)

Classification

Subjects

medicinedisciplines
medicine
id. 47306

Sources

Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.

[ed.] Helmont, Jan Baptist van, Ortus medicinae: id est, initia physicae inaudita. Progressus medicinae novus, in morborum ultionem, ad vitam longam, ed. Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont, Amsterdam: Elzevier, 1648.
Editio princeps, edited by Van Helmont's son.
[ed.] Helmont, Jan Baptist van, Ortus medicinae: id est, initia physicae inaudita. Progressus medicinae novus, in morborum ultionem, ad vitam longam, ed. Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont, 3rd ed., Amsterdam: Elzevier, 1652.
 : <link>
[tr.] Helmont, Jan Baptist van, Oriatrike or, physick refined: the common errors therein refuted, and the whole art reformed and rectified, tr. John Chandler, London: printed for Lodowick Loyd, 1662.  
English translation of van Helmont’s Ortus medicinae.
 : <link>
English translation.
web page identifiers
Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
July 2020, last updated: September 2022
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