Valeria'nus, C. Pli'nius
a physician, whose date is unknown, who died at the early age of twenty-two, and whose name is preserved in a Latin inscription found at Como. (Gruter,
Inscr. 1.635.)
Works
To him is attributed (but apparently without any very good reason) a Latin medical work entitled “
Medicinae Plinianae Libri Quinque”, which is supposed to have been written about the fourth century after Christ.
It is a book on domestic medicine, compiled from Pliny, Dioscorides, Galen, Alexander Trallianus, and others, and is not of much value.
The first three books treat of different diseases, beginning with the head and descending to the feet, and contain an account of a great number of medicines, taken partly from Pliny and partly from later writers.
The fourth book treats of the properties of plants, and is in a great measure taken from Galen; and the fifth, which is almost entirely taken from Alexander Trallianus, treats of the diet suitable to different diseases.
Editions
The work was first published at Rome 1509, fol., edited by Th. Pighlinuccius. There is (according to Haller) a much more accurate edition, published Bonon. 1516, fol. It is also inserted in Alban Thorer's (Torinus) Collection, Basil. 1528, fol., and
in the Aldine Collection of Medici Antiqui, Venet. 1547, fol. There is a learned dissertation by J. G. Günz (which the Writer has never seen), entitled De Auctore Operis de Re Medica, vulgo Plinio Valeriano adscripti, Lips. 1736, 4to, in which the author tries to prove that the work in question was written by Siburius.
Further Information
See Fabricius,
Bibl. Lat. ; Haller,
Bibl. Med. Pract. ; Choulant,
Handb.der Bücherkunde für die Aeltere Medicin; Penny Cyclop.[
W.A.G]
