{
  "author": "ChronologiaOS editorial guides",
  "date": "2026-10-09",
  "department": "Medicine & Natural Knowledge",
  "department_id": "MEDICINE",
  "epistemic_label": "Source guide",
  "epistemic_status": "SOURCE_GUIDE",
  "period": "Ancient texts in Byzantine manuscripts",
  "place": "Greek world and Byzantium",
  "public_sources": [
    {
      "publisher": "PubMed-indexed historical study",
      "title": "The origin of the Corpus Hippocraticum ... Codex Vaticanus Graecus 276",
      "type": "Peer-reviewed article",
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11640125/"
    },
    {
      "publisher": "PubMed-indexed historical study",
      "title": "The Alphabetical Dioscorides and Codex Vindobonensis Med. gr. 1",
      "type": "Peer-reviewed article",
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11640314/"
    }
  ],
  "publication_state": "PUBLIC",
  "read_time": "3 min read",
  "sections": [
    {
      "body": "A historical study of the origin of the Corpus Hippocraticum emphasizes that the Hippocratic works circulated in separate rolls and groups until they were compiled into Byzantine codices. The research record uses this to model composition versus witness: the corpus has many authors and no single composition date.",
      "heading": "Start with the corpus",
      "source": 0
    },
    {
      "body": "The Vienna Dioscorides, Codex Vindobonensis Med. gr. 1, is a Byzantine manuscript of Dioscorides' pharmacological work; a historical study examines its alphabetical organization of plants and remedies. The record treats the codex as a witness object, not as the date of the original work.",
      "heading": "A manuscript as an object",
      "source": 1
    },
    {
      "body": "For any ancient text, write two dates: the estimated composition and the date of the oldest surviving copy. If they are centuries apart, ask what happened in between: copying, rearrangement, translation, loss.",
      "heading": "Try the research habit"
    },
    {
      "body": "If the earliest complete copy of a text is Byzantine, what kinds of evidence could still show that a passage is ancient rather than a later addition?",
      "heading": "A question to carry forward"
    }
  ],
  "short_title": "How old is the copy you are reading?",
  "slug": "ancient-medicine-in-byzantine-hands",
  "summary": "Two studies of Greek medical texts show the gap between when a work was composed and when its surviving manuscript was made. Learn to date the witness and the work separately.",
  "tags": [
    "Hippocratic corpus",
    "Dioscorides",
    "Manuscripts",
    "Byzantium"
  ],
  "title": "Ancient medicine in Byzantine hands: the Hippocratic corpus and the Vienna Dioscorides."
}