The Mulomedicina of Theodoricus Cerviensis and its key role in the transmission of Latin treatises on horse medicine from the 13th to the 15th century in Italy

• Applicants: Dr. Lisa Sannicandro; Dr. Martina Schwarzenberger
• Subject Area: Veterinary Medical Science ; History of Science
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268945113

Our project centers around Theodoricus Cerviensis (1205-1298) and his treatise on horse medicine (Mulomedicina). Theodoricus, a Dominican monk and later bishop of Cervia, was, in addition to his career in the church, physician to upper class people as well as the author of a well-known treatise on surgery and of a less well-known but nonetheless influential work on horse medicine, which he compiled from ancient and contemporary sources. With Jordanus Ruffus, active around the middle of the 13th century and a major text source of the Mulomedicina, Theodoricus inaugurates a new era of literary activity devoted to the ailments of horses, at a time when most authors, like Jordanus Ruffus, were able but not academically trained practitioners in charge of the stables at a number of courts in Italy and in adjacent Mediterranean countries. His competence in surgery as well as his position in the clergy set Theodoricus apart.So far, fifteen Latin manuscripts dating from the 13th to the 16th century of his Mulomedicina have been identified. Our interdisciplinary project will provide the first critical edition based on all manuscripts. Text contents will be compared with contemporary literature on hippiatrics. The planned digital edition will enable sustainable access to the text as well as its transformation into any format. It will also be possible to link in a multidimensional way the textual contents to the digital versions of the manuscripts, the critical annotations, the comprehensive glossary, the translation and the commentary explaining the veterinary background. In view of the scanty coverage of veterinary terms in today's medieval Latin dictionaries, the glossary will fill an important gap for historians of veterinary medicine and medievalists alike and will be welcomed by lexicographers of medieval Latin and the Romance languages.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants