New publication: complete works of Hippocrates

Hippocrates is certainly the most famous physician of antiquity, if not the most famous physician of all. Instead of magical practices, the "father of medicine" relied on reason-based observation and experience and thus founded medicine as a science. The Hippocratic Oath is still considered exemplary for medical ethics today.

An extensive oeuvre has been handed down under Hippocrates' name, the so-called Corpus Hippocraticum. The approx. 70 books are aimed at doctors as well as lay people, explain the causes of illnesses, serve as a guide to diagnosis and prognosis, and provide concise instructions for therapy and recommendations for treatment.

All Hippocratic writings are now available again in the German translation by Richard Kapferer and others. The medical historian Florian Steger, professor at the University of Ulm, has contributed an introduction. Kai Brodersen, Professor of Ancient Culture at the University of Erfurt, has reviewed, carefully modernised and edited the translation.