ANGLO-DUTCH WELLCOME SYMPOSIUM ON ANCIENT MEDICINE
The Hippocratic Tradition Reconsidered
 
Aim of the Conference

In 1979 Wesley D. Smith (Philadelphia) published The Hippocratic Tradition.
Now, 25 years later, the moment has come to reconsider the questions he has
raised, in the light of recent research. How the Hippocratic Tradition, and
the Hippocratic Myth, were formed subsequently? How did it work?
It is time to reconsider the formation of the Hippocratic Tradition in the
light of recent research from Mesopotamian and Egyptian medicine onwards,
until the 18th century, the last century when Hippocratic medicine still had
actual relevance in Western society. The relationship to the medical
practice and theory of the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian world should be
considered in view of the traditional claims that Hippocratic medicine has
been superior to them in attitude and method.

The following topics will be addressed

I. Before Hippocrates
- Ancient Egyptian Medicine
- Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine

II. Hippocrates
- The Concept of Hippocratic Medicine as Such in the Greek World

III. After Hippocrates
- Galen
- The Medieval Arab World
- Medieval Western Europe
- The Renaissance
- The Eighteenth Century

Organising comittee

Harm Beukers, History of Medicine, Universiteit Leiden.
Manfred Horstmanshoff, Ancient History, Universiteit Leiden
in co-operation with Philip van der Eijk, Department of Classics, University
of Newcastle upon Tyne, and Helen King, Department of Classics, University
of Reading

 List of Speakers (in chronological order)

Ben Haring, Universiteit Leiden, Egyptology, The Legacy of Ancient Egyptian
Medicine.
Mark Geller, University College London, Hebrew, Mesopotamian Medicine and
Hippocrates.
Philip van der Eijk, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Greek, Hippocratic
Medicine - Is There Such a Thing?.
Elizabeth Craik, University of St. Andrews, Parallel passages in the
Hippocratic Corpus: horizontal transmission in an incipient tradition¹.
Vivian Nutton, The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at
University College London, Galenic Consequences¹
Remke Kruk, Universiteit Leiden, Arabic, Patterns of Medical Biographies in
Ibn abi Usaybi'a's Tabaqât al-atibbâ'.
Karine van 't Land, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Medieval History,
Humours and Mixtures: Hippocrates Heritage in Antiquity and in the Middle
Ages.
Thomas Rütten, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, History of Medicine, The
Janus Face of a Literary Genre. Hippocrates Commentaries Authored and
Printed in the Sixteenth Century.
Harm Beukers, Universiteit Leiden, History of Medicine, Boerhaave and
Hippocrates.

Helen King, University of Reading, Classics, Moderator.
Manfred Horstmanshoff, Universiteit Leiden, Ancient History, Moderator.
Wesley D. Smith, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 'Concluding
remarks' .

The abstracts and papers will be pre-circulated. The maximum length of time
for delivery of every paper, discussion included, is 30 minutes. We plan to
publish the presented papers in a volume: Hippocrates, Before and After. The
Hippocratic Tradition 3000 BC-1800 AD.

Location of the meeting

As a venue for the symposium a place of historical interest has been chosen:
the castle Oud Poelgeest, near Leiden, where Herman Boerhaave, the Dutch
Hippocrates, ca. 1725 has lived and has founded a herb garden.
http://www.oudpoelgeest.nl/

Information and Contact

Dr H.F.J. (Manfred) Horstmanshoff
Universiteit Leiden, Instituut voor Geschiedenis, P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA
Leiden, The Netherlands
tel. +31-(0)71-5262764; e-mail: H.F.J.Horstmanshoff@let.leidenuniv.nl

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