Phulotimos (330 – 270 BCE)
Greek physician, P’ pupil together with H (G Alim. Fac. 3.30.8
[CMG 5.4.2, p. 374]), mentioned, as son of Timolukos, in two inscriptions of Ko ̄s (300– 260
BCE: R. Herzog, Heilige Gesetze von Kos = Abh. Ak. Berl. 1928.6, n ̊ 14, 37–38), quoted usually
with Praxagoras in lists of Dogmatic physicians (Gale ̄n, Sanit. 4.6.22 [CMG 5.4.2, p. 122];
On Venesection, Against Erasistratos 5, 6 [11.163, 169 K. = pp. 25, 28 Brain]; etc.), often errone-
ously cited as “Philotimos.”
It is difficult to discern Phulotimos’ positions. He shared his teacher’s main anatomical
and physiological theories and terminology, practiced phlebotomy (Gale ̄n Anat. Womb 2.890
K., Ven. Sect. 11.163 K. = p. 25 Brain) and gave treatments for epilepsy and pleuritis. He is
quoted more rarely alone, for his treatment with hellebore, the anatomical explanation of a
rare word in H (Schol. Hom. Iliad. 11.424d: not in Steckerl), and an anecdote about his
answer to someone dying of consumption who asked him to cure a sore finger. He wrote
Art of cookery (Ath., Deipn. 7 [308f]) – perhaps a part of the influential On (the properties of) food
expanding his teacher’s text (Gale ̄n Alim. Fac. 1.13.2 [CMG 5.4.2, pp. 234–235]) – describing
and classifying the properties of foods and frequently quoted, for cereals, nuts and different
fishes (frr. 6 – 20 Steckerl). A surgeon (C 8.20.4), he wrote On matters concerning surgery
(Gale ̄n In Hipp. Offic. 18B.629 K.).
Ed.: Steckerl (1958).
RE 20.1 (1941) 1030–1032, H. Diller; Sherwin-White (1978); BNP 11 (2007) 215, V. Nutton.
Daniela Manetti
Physica Plinii (ca 450 – 500 CE)
Collection of “extracts” from P, even more truncated and mangled than the earlier
M P. The extractor, another Ignotus, has sandwiched passages from the
Medicina Plinii (thus an extract of an extraction), plus bits from the Natural History itself,
M’ De medicamentis, the -A tracts, and what Önnerfors calls alii
fontes. From this abridgment of abridgements was produced an even more truncated set of
excerpts (12 folios in an 8th/9th c. MS), and another Italian excerptor (6th/7th c.) had
independently created a longer set of excerpts, about 120 folios re-copied into a 9th/10th c.
Italian MS labeled by Önnerfors as Q , the so-called Bamberg Pliny. Not surprisingly,
other enterprising scribes were busily doing separate extractions, and another set of folios,
called the Plinii Florentino-Pragensis, has survived to be added to our knowledge of this
obviously most popular genre that circulated in the Latin West in the Middle Ages. The
very bulk of Pliny’s original 37-book Natural History encouraged the production of summar-
ies, synopses, outlines, and abridgements, much as we find many more digests and epitomes
of Gibbon, Frazer, or Toynbee, than we do the complete Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire (seven vols.), The Golden Bough (14 vols.), or History of the World (ten vols.). The Physica
Plinii, however, is best compared with the all-too-popular Reader’s Digest series of abridged
novels.
Ed.: A. Önnerfors, Physica Plinii Bambergensis (Cod. Bamb. Med. 2, fol. 93v–232r) (1975); J. Winkler,
Physicae quae fertur Plinii Florentino-Pragensis Liber Primus (1984); W. Wachtmeister, Physicae Plinii
quae fertur Florentino-Pragensis Liber secundus (1985); A. Önnerfors, Physica Plinii Sangallensis, vv. 1– 3
(2006–2007): non vidi.
H.E. Sigerist, Studien und Texte zur frühmittelalterlichen Rezeptliteratur (1923; repr. 1977); J. Jörimann,
PHULOTIMOS