Anatomy in Vegetius’s Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae 3, 1–4
Type de matériel :
17
The first four chapters of the third book of Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae bring together, in the form of short synopses, a body of knowledge concerning equine anatomy. These summaries are both easy to remember and invaluable for the practician. They deal with the skeleton and bones, the morphometry of the three-month-old foal, the “nerves” which in fact refer to the sinews, and the veins for bleeding. These four chapters are original and do not derive from a source that is currently known to us: they transmit a rare lexicon—apparently corresponding to oral jargon—along with exact knowledge based on observation and the judgment of a breeder that still proves correct in our own times. Those hippological informations were shared veterinary surgeons, breeders and owners; Vegetius’s take was apparently to collect them for a wider audience. Lacunas that appeared very early in the manuscript transmission (skip from a word to the same word) and frequent misunderstanding of the anatomical terms caused them to become defective and to be discredited. Once restored, they testify to the coherent body of knowledge and careful observation of reality from which equine studies and horse breeding benefited in Antiquity: the Digesta stem from a combination of exterior observation that stands at the crossroads between the knowledge of internal anatomy and the study of external anatomy, practical observation by the therapist who wants to gain a better understanding of the disease, aesthetic observation of the body, its forms, movements and strength.
Réseaux sociaux