Arnaldus de Villanova

Arnaldus de Villanova, sometimes called Arnaud de Villeneuve, was a Catalan who died in 1311. He taught medicine at montpellier, the most important medical school, with Salerno, in medieval Europe. He had an eventful life, attending the sickbeds of popes and kings and engaging in theological controversy. He was an influential physician, and his writings were still reprinted in the 16th century.

Arnaldus is not interested in wine for its own sake: his concern is with the medical proprieties of wine. One of his books, the Liber de vinis (‘Book on Wines’), deals exclusively with wine as medicine, but references to wine appear throughout his works. The Liber de vinis is short: in the 16th-century editions of the complete works it occupies no more than ten folio pages. To a modern reader it is bound to appear a strange mixture: galen and the Arab philosopher Avicenna; alchemy and astrology; some first-hand observation. Arnaldus’ medicine draws heavily on the voluminous writings of Galen (129–99 bc), physician to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, but Galen was a far better scientist. Galen wrote in Greek, but knowledge of Greek was rare in the medieval west: some of his works were, however, translated into Arabic and thence into Latin. Through Moorish Spain, Arabic influence on European influence was strong: hence Arnaldus’ references to Avicenna and other Arabic authors.