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stage, in late antiquity.54 the Hippocratic treatise, Nature of Man, does
not link the four humours to moods or temperaments, and the link is still
not systematically developed to the fullest in Galen’s work.55 the charac-
terology of the humours, and the accompanying moods and dispositions,
seems to spring forward in a Latin treatise that appears to have enjoyed
much popularity in medieval Europe, Epistula Vindiciani ad Pentadium
nepotem suum, or Vindician’s Letter to his Nephew Pentadius.56 The Letter
is presented as an introduction to medicine for the young Pentadius and
claims its authority by maintaining that it is a translation “ex libris medici-
nalibus Hippocratis intima latinavi”57 [from the core of the medical works
of Hippocrates]. the author salutes his nephew and then goes on to ex-
plain the theory of the four humours, recounting their influence on a man’s
character and mood, and how the humours vary according to the hours of
the day, the seasons and the ages of man. It further describes where in the
body each humour resides, where their exit is, how they affect the pulse,
the pathological consequences of the domination of each of them and the
appropriate therapies. Vindicianus afer (c. 340–c. 400 ce) was a physi-
cian and proconsul in north africa and an acquaintance of augustine of
Hippo, who expressed his admiration for his skills as a physician in his
Confessions.58 If the attribution is authentic, the Letter would date from the
second half of the fourth century.59 The Letter seems to have been widely
54 on the development of the theory from Hippocrates and Galen, see, e.g., Jacques Jouanna,
“the Legacy of the Hippocratic treatise The Nature of Man: the theory of the four
Humours,” Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen: Selected Papers, ed. by Philip van der
Eijk, Studies in ancient Medicine 40 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 336–40.
55 See ibid.; Klibansky, Panofsky, and Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy, 61–65.
56 Published in Vindicianus afer, Epistula ad Pentadium, ed. by Valentin Rose, Theodori
Prisciani Euporiston... (Leipzig: teubner, 1894), 484–92.
57 Ibid., 485. Such false attributions are common in medieval medical texts.
58 Augustine, Confessions, iv. 3. 5, vii. 6. 8. on Vindician, see Louise Cilliers, “the Co n-
tribution of the 4th Century north african Physician, Helvius Vindicianus,” Medicine
and Health in the Ancient Mediterranean World, ed. by Demetrius Michaelides (oxford:
oxbow, 2008), 122–23; Jacques Jouanna, “La théorie des quatre humeurs et des quatre
tempéraments dans la tradition latine (Vindicien, Pseudo-Soranos) et une source grecque
retrouvée,” Revue des Études Grecques (2005): 139.
59 However, Jacques Jouanna has argued that the Letter is most probably form the sixth
century – that it represents the development of humoral theory in late antiquity and is a
translation derived from a Greek text. See his “La théorie des quatre humeurs,”154–67;
“Legacy of the Hippocratic treatise,” 357–58. for an account of the Greek texts, see ibid.,
241–50.
HUMORAL THEORY IN THE MEDIEVAL NORTH