Aetius of Amida. Libri Medicinales Book 1: A Translation with Commentary

This work is the first translation into a modern language of book 1 of the Libri Medicinales of Aëtius of Amida, a Byzantine physician who wrote in the middle of the 6th century AD. It comprises a lengthy preface, describing the analysis of pharmacological materials in terms of the science of the time, followed by 418 chapters, listing such materials obtained from plants. Commentary is to be found in the Introduction, as well as a running commentary after each part of the preface and each chapter. As Aëtius’ book 1 is a synopsis of the plants section of Galen’s On the Mixtures and Capacities of Simple Drugs, particular attention is paid to comparison between Aëtius’ work and that of Galen. Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of the ancient drugs in the light of modern scientific knowledge, a relatively neglected area of research, has also been given serious consideration.

Re-viewing history: antiquaries, the graphic arts and Scotland's lost geographies, c.1660-1820

This thesis examines topographical art depicting Scotland’s natural scenery and built environments, architecture, antiquities and signs of modern improvement, made during the period 1660 to 1820. It sets out to demonstrate that topography and topographical art was not exclusively antiquarian in nature, but ranged across various fields of learning and practice. It included the work of artists, geographers, cartographers, travel writers, poets, landscape gardeners, military surveyors, naturalists and historians who were concerned with representing the country’s varied, and often contentious, histories within an increasingly modernising present. The visual images that are considered here were forms of knowledge that found expression in drawings, paintings and engravings, elevations, views and plans. They were made on military surveys and picturesque tours, and were often intended to be included alongside written texts, both published and unpublished, frequently connecting with travels, tours, memoirs, essays and correspondence. It will also be argued that topography was a social practice, involving networks of artists, collectors, publishers and writers, who exchanged information in drawings and letters in a nationwide, and often increasingly commercial enterprise. This thesis will explore some of the strands of such a vast network of picture-making that existed in Scotland, and Britain, between 1660 and 1820, as visual images were circulated, copied, recycled and adapted, and topographical and antiquarian visual culture emerges as a complex, synoptic form of inquiry.