Aulus Cornelius Celsus' De Medicina and His Contributions to Knowledge on Skin Diseases

Abstract

The book De Medicina by Aulus Cornelius Celsus was the first complete treatise about medicine written in Latin. We know little about his life. The monography consists of eight books describing all that was known within the whole sphere of medicine and surgery in the first century AD. In the introduction (proemium), he also described the history of medicine until his time and also delineated the treatment of diseases that may be dietetic, medication-based or surgical. The treatise describes approximately forty skin diseases in a concise and clear style.