Omnimorbia

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Omnimorbia vocatur a quibusdam polium eo quod multis morbis congruat, liber antiquus de simplici medicina.


Apparatus:

Omnimorbia j | Ominorbia f | Omminoborbia ms. e
morbis | modis f
congruat | cõgnat j


Translation:

Omnimorbia is the name some people give to polium because it relieves many diseases, as stated in an ancient book on simples medicine.


Commentary:

In the literature before Simon omnimorbia seems to be mentioned only in Isidore’s Etymologiae [André, 1981: 198]; this text is also available online 3, 9, 63, Oxford edition (1911) [[1]], where it says: Polios a Graecis, a Latinis omnimorbia quod multis morbis subveniat – “It (sc. the herb) is called polios by the Greeks and omnimorbia {lit. (sc. good for) “all-afflictions”} by Latin speakers because it cures many diseases”.

Apart from this early mention omnimorbia is only attested in glossaries, cf. André (1981: 199, annotation 487).

A different source - contemporary with Simon - is the Herbal of Rufinus (2nd half of 13th c.), ed Thorndike (1946: 249), monograph 28, which shares the identical text up to congruat with Simon. The liber de simplici medicina which Simon quotes here as his source must have been excerpted by Rufinus as well. However, omnimorbia is found neither in the Herbarius of Ps. Apuleius nor in Ps. Dioscorides: De herbis femininis, books that often seem to be the ultimate sources for quotes Simon attributes to an “ancient book”, cf. e.g. Aluta (2), Licanis stiphanica.

WilfGunther (talk) 10:51, 10 February 2016 (GMT)

For the botanical identification etc. see also Polion


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