Plants, remedies and apothecaries; the medieval garden

The exhibition proposes an exploration of the complex and elaborate science that evolved during the medieval period out of the basic principles of Greek and Roman medicine and the contributions of Arab-Islamic culture, and which used nature as the basis of its methodology. This knowledge was transmitted through several books and treatises that were repeatedly copied, translated into several languages and discussed during centuries. In medieval Barcelona, doctors and pharmacists not only had a deep knowledge of the healing properties of various animal and vegetable products but also of the medicinal remedies suitable for each disease, which could be purchased at apothecaries in the city.

The medieval Christian world recovered the knowledge of Greco-Roman medical science though Arab-Islamic culture, which had revived and perfected it. Authors such as Galen (c. 130 AD - 200 AD) and Pedanius Dioscorides (1st century AD) became the references for all medieval medical treatises. Gallenic medicine was based on the theory of humours, according to which all living things are composed of four basic elements: air, water, earth and fire, arising from the combination of four fundamental properties formed by opposing pairs: heat and cold, dryness and humidity. In men, these four elements were identified with the four humours or substances: blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. When these fluids became unbalanced, illness arose.