(luxata), wound-caused suppurations and ulcerations, extraction of missiles which have
entered the body, with specific directions according to the different kinds of missiles (here
Celsus attests Roman military surgical techniques). The second part of Book 7 (6–33) deals
with specific surgical treatments in the a capite ad calcem order. Ample space is also given to
ophthalmology, e.g. to the surgical treatment of cataract (7.7.14). Other surgical operations
described by Celsus include catheterization (26.1), embryotomy (29), tonsillectomy (30.3),
treatment of varicose veins (31). Book 8 is devoted to orthopedics and to the treatment of
fractures, dislocations, and other orthopedic pathologies. The book opens with a general
description of skeleton and bones (1).
Transmission. The De Medicina is scarcely known in the ancient medical tradition.
Pliny lists it amongst his sources; the two epistles M B ascribes to
Celsus are apocryphal (the two lost sections on agriculture and rhetoric had more success,
and were used by C and Quintilian). Little known in the Middle Ages, Celsus’
work was rediscovered in the humanistic age. The editio princeps was published in Florence in
- The text in the lacuna at 4.27 (on vesical calculus) was discovered in the early 1970s
in a MS of the Capitular Library of Toledo (Spain).
Ed.: F. Marx CML 1 (1915; repr. 2002); W.G. Spencer, Celsus (1935–1938); 4.27: U. Capitani, “Il
recupero di un passo di Celso in un codice del De medicina conservato a Toledo,” Maia 26 (1974)
161 – 212, D. Ollero Granados, “Dos nuevos capítulos de A. Cornelio Celso (De medicina IV, 27,1 D),”
Emerita 41 (1973) 99–108; Ph. Mudry, La Préface du De medicina de Celse (1982); G. Serbat, De la médecine:
Celse (1995), Books 1–2; R.M. Cuilla, Celso, De medicina libro IV (1990); I. Mazzini, La chirurgia: libri VII
e VIII del De medicina (1999); S. Contino, De Medicina Liber VIII (1988); Wm.F. Richardson, A Word index
to Celsus: De medicina (1982).
Studies: RE 4.1 (1900) 1273–1276, M. Wellmann; DSB 3.174–175, F. Kudlien; KP 1.1102, F. Kudlien;
OCD3 392 – 393, J.T. Vallance; ECP 123 – 125, H. von Staden; BNP 3 (2003) 74–75 (#7), K. Sallmann;
AML 189 – 191, C. Oser-Grote; NDSB 2.81–84, I. Mazzini.
K. Barwick, “Die Enzyklopädie des Cornelius Celsus,” Philologus 104 (1960) 236–249; U. Capitani, “A.
C. Celso e la terminologia tecnica greca,” ASNP 5 (1975) 449–518; H.D. Jocelyn, “The new chapters
of the ninth book of Celsus’ Artes, V,” Papers of Liverpool Latin Seminar 5 (1985) 299–336; Ph. Mudry,
“Le 1er livre de la Médecine de Celse,” in Mazzini and Fusco (1985) 141–150; Ph. Mudry, “Le ‘De
medicina’ de Celse. Rapport bibliographique,” and W. Deuse, “Celsus im Prooemium von ‘De
Medicina’,” ANRW 2.37.1 (1993) 787–818 and 819–841; Önnerfors (1993) 233–250; G. Sabbah
and Ph. Mudry, edd., La médecine de Celse (1994); H. von Staden, “Author and Authority. Celsus and
the construction of a scientific self,” in Vásquez Buján (1994) 103–117; Fabio Stok, “Natura
corporis. Costituzioni e temperamenti in Celso,” in S. Sconocchia and L. Toneatto, edd., Lingue
tecniche del greco e del latino II (1997) 151–170; Ch. Schulze, Aulus Cornelius Celsus: Artz oder Laie? (1999);
H. von Staden, “Celsus as historian?” in van der Eijk (1999) 251–294; Ch. Schulze, Celsus (2001):
with bibliography; Ph. Mudry, Medicina soror philosophiae (2006) 307–316, 317–332 (repr. of Mudry
1985 and 1993, above).
Fabio Stok
Cornelius Nepos of Transpadana (ca 80 – 24 BCE)
Earliest extant Latin biographer, born ca 110 BCE, in Rome by 65, friend of C and
Atticus, and Catullus’ dedicatee. Nepos’ prolific output, mostly lost, includes biographies of
famous men (24 of 400+ survive), a three-book universal history (Catullus 1), Anecdotes
(Gellius 6 [7].18.11), and light verse ( probably never published: Pliny Jr. Ep. 5.3.6). Nepos’
geography, perhaps “universal,” is cited by P on the Danube and its tributaries (3.127),
CORNELIUS NEPOS OF TRANSPADANA