University of Virginia Library

CASSIODORUS ON THE ART OF HEALING

Cassiodorus the Senator (ca. 480-ca. 575) in a chapter
"On Doctors" of his widely read Introduction to Divine
and Human Readings, written for the instruction of his
monks some time after 551,[370] refers to the brothers who
"look after the health of the human body" as men "who

[ILLUSTRATION]

410. PLAN OF ST. GALL. HOUSE OF THE PHYSICIANS

SHOWN FULL SIZE; 1:192

The Physicians' House shares a site with the
Medicinal Herb Garden in the northeast corner
of the monastery tract. The house belongs to a
sub-group of the guest and service buildings of
the Plan, of which the communal hall is
surrounded on only three sides by peripheral
rooms. Other variants of this smaller format are
the House of the Gardener (fig. 426), the House
for Cows and Cowherds (fig. 489), and the
House for Foaling Mares and their Keepers
(fig. 487).

The proximity of the physicians to their garden
reflects the contemporary state of pharmacy,
which lay largely in the realm of botanicals, as
the authorities of Dioscurides, Isidore, and
many others attest. The physicians' duties
included compounding and dispensing medicines;
their house is provided with a secure room
especially designated for storage of medication.

will receive their reward from Him by whom eternal rewards
may be paid for temporal acts."[371] He lists as standard
medical works to be studied for instruction in this specialized
craft: the book on herbs by Dioscurides; the Latin
translations of the works of Hippocrates and Galen (especially
the latter's Therapeutics, addressed to the philosopher
Glauco); an anonymous work compiled from various
authors; the book On Medicine by Caelius Aurelius;
Hippocrates' On Herbs and Cures as well as various other
medical treatises. He informs his readers that he had collected
copies of all of these works for future use, and that
these copies "are stored away in the recesses of our library"
(i.e., the library of the monastery of Vivarium, which he
had founded and for the monks of which the Institutiones
were written).[372]

Like the later medieval attitude toward medicine,
Cassiodorus' view about the efficacy of medical care is
tinted by the belief that the ultimate decision about sickness
and health are the concern of the Lord; and this ambivalence
between reliance on physical care and limitations
imposed upon it by divine predestination he expresses
clearly when admonishing the brothers: "Learn, therefore,
the properties of herbs and perform the compounding of
drugs punctiliously; but do not place your hope in herbs
and do not trust health to human council. For although the
art of medicine be found to be established by the Lord . . .
who without doubt grants life to men, makes them sound"

(et ideo discite quidem naturas herbarum commixtionesque
specierum solicita mente tractate; sed non ponatis in herbis
spem, non in humanis consiliis sospitatem. nam quamvis
medicina legatur a Domino constituta, ipse tamen sanos
efficit, qui vitam sine dubitatione concedit).[373]