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08-Sep-2020
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Arch Hellen Med, 37(Supplement 2), 2020, 47-52 BIOGRAPHY Kidney diseases in the mediaeval work "Michi Competit" by Thomas of Wroclaw J. Ostrowski,1 P. Żmudzki2 |
Although mediaeval medicine is oft considered to suffer from many weaknesses, there is a lot of data against this view. These include the emergence of Europe's first universities, educating doctors such as Arnaldo De Villanova, in France and others. The next generation of outstanding doctors includes Thomas of Wrocław, born in the namesake Silesian town in 1297. At the age of 16, he started studying at the university in Montpellier, France where he met his renowned teachers: Peter Abano, Henry de Mondeville, and Bernard de Gordon. After completing his studies in Montpellier, he continued his scientific journey to Toledo (Spain), Salerno, Padua, Bologna and Rome (Italy) and to Oxford (England). Having earned a pan-European reputation, despite numerous job offers from universities, he returned to his homeland to become a court doctor for John of Bohemia and Charles IV, king of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Emperor. He died in Wrocław in 1378 and was buried at the nearby St. Vincent Abbey. Thomas is known to have written many works, yet Mihi Competit, completed at the age of 63, is the most prominent. It comprises four parts: Regimen Sanitatis, Aggregatum, Antidotarium and Practica Medicinalis. Modern nephrologists might find the last one the most interesting, as its chapters no 81–87 of part 112 refer to urinary tract diseases. The titles of the subsequent parts are: De debilitate et dolore renum (On Renal Disease and Pain), De apostemate renum (On Renal Abscess), De ulceribus renum et vesice (On Kidney and Bladder Ulcers), De lapide renum et vesice (On Kidney and Bladder Stone), De difficultate mingendi (On Problems with Urination), De diampne (On Urinary Incontinence) and De diabete (On Diabetes). There are no known translations of the Latin-written Michi Competit into modern languages. Finding some of the views depicted in the work historically interesting, the authors undertook to translate it, aiming to present it to a wider audience.
Key words: Kidney diseases, Middle Ages, Thomas of Wroclaw.
