Drugs in the Medieval Mediterranean: Transmission and Circulation of Pharmacological Knowledge

In  this volume a distinguished international team of scholars examines the  history of drugs within all the major medical traditions of the  medieval Mediterranean, namely Byzantine, Islamicate, Jewish, and Latin,  and in so doing analyses a considerable number of previously unedited  or barely explored texts. A Mediterranean-wide perspective permits a  deeper understanding of broader phenomena such as the transfer of  scientific knowledge and cultural exchange, by looking beyond single  linguistic traditions or political boundaries. It also highlights the  diversity and vitality of the medieval Mediterranean pharmacological  tradition, which, through its close links with cookery, alchemy, magic,  religion and philosophy, had to be able to adapt to multiple contexts,  not least to changing social and political realities, as in the case of  drugs as diplomatic gifts.