Biblioteche di medicina. Il caso dei traduttori dei testi medici greci (secoli XII-XIV)

Medical libraries spread mainly in the modern age, but there are also remarkable examples before, in the first half of the fifteenth century. Generally, from the 11th to the 16th century, the Latin translators of Greek doctors made a great contribution to medicine, because they improved medical knowledge providing new texts for academic teaching, which influenced medical practice. In my paper, I aim at reconstructing the libraries or sources of the Latin translators from Greek of ancient medical texts, from the 12th to the 14th century: Burgundio of Pisa, Bartholomew and Stephan of Messina, Wilhelm of Moerbeke, Peter of Abano, and Nicholas of Reggio. The evolution of medical collections will be highlighted, as well as some crucial aspects of the transmission of medical texts will be placed in historical context.