The Tokugawa period saw a transformation in the systematic inquiry into nature. In the seventeenth century scholars were engaging in discrete fields of study, such as astronomy or medicine. But over the course of the next two centuries the fields that initially seemed distant and unrelated gradually converged into one enterprise that we now call “science.” Although Japanese scholars were not isolated from European science, it was not the outside influence that caused this transformation. Rather, the new conceptualization of science came from within, as different scholars came to align themselves along different lines. What brought them together was no longer social status, practical goals, or even their respective disciplines, but the kind of questions they asked, the kind of evidence they considered acceptable, and the sources they deemed authoritative. Together, they now engaged in Science, with a capital S, that was greater than the sum of its parts.

Amīn al-Dawla Ibn al-Tilmīdh (d. 1165) was born in Baghdad into a family of Christian physicians. He served several Abbasid caliphs, who entrusted him with high-ranking positions, such as that of ‘head of physicians’ of his hometown. He wrote about twenty books and treatises, including a renowned dispensatory. In this chapter I examine Ibn al-Tilmīdh’s little-known work on simple drugs, the Kitāb quwā l-adwiyah (Book on the Faculties of Simple Drugs). The text consists of 287 entries on medicinal plants, minerals, and a few animal products. Each entry is divided into five sections, dedicated respectively to synonyms, descriptions, ‘faculties’, benefits of the simple drug, and its use in compound remedies. The most interesting of these sections is the first, as Ibn al-Tilmīdh not only gave the usual Arabic names of plants and minerals and their synonyms there, but also regularly listed the Syriac, Persian, and Greek names of the drugs.

The anonymous early medieval compilers of recipe collections in Latin manuscripts are not often thought of as curious about new medical information. While the stereotype of medieval Latin stagnation in medicine has been countered, recipe compilers remain as recyclers of the ancient past. Close analysis of early medieval medical recipes, however, suggests that we should reconsider this view. This chapter focuses on a series of dental recipes found in related medieval adaptations of the medical portions of Pliny’s Natural History which suggests several changes over time, including a growing attention to precision and quantification, the deployment of a diverse range of new ingredients, and a link between claims of efficacy and ingredients identified as coming from Africa, Arabia, and India. These recipes reveal shifting uses for materia medica described in classical sources and provide insight into new ways that medieval medical writers were interpreting and adapting their source materials.

This chapter examines the medieval Greek and Arabic sources for the movement of medical substances between the Byzantine and Islamic worlds in the period from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. Although commerce was the most common means employed in the movement of materia medica, and the part played by tribute taking and looting was not negligible, the role of diplomatic gift exchange cannot be ignored. A relatively wide range of drugs were exchanged, ranging from theriac and a stone against dropsy to spices and perfumes. Moreover, this chapter examines the peculiar role of drugs as gifts in diplomatic communication compared to more typical diplomatic gifts such as expensive textiles and luxurious objects. Not suited to acting as objects of display, materia medica seemed to convey a personal message of care, creating mutual ties between the sender and the recipient.