Difference between revisions of "Aims of the project"

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There is a lot of interesting material to be discovered in the ''clavis'', and I invite everybody to have a closer look! Have fun!
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There is a lot of interesting material to be discovered in the ''clavis'', and I invite everybody to have a closer look!

Revision as of 01:00, 12 February 2011

Simon Online is a joint edition and translation project of Simon of Genoa's clavis sanationis (more...). In essence, it is a book written collectively by a number of researchers. Each entry also has a discussion page for informal discourse.


The decision to open the project up to a larger group of participants was mainly motivated by the complex nature of the clavis. Not only does it draw on a number of sources which are not edited to modern standard, it also covers highly specialized terminology in at least three different languages, Latin, Greek and Arabic. Any research on the sources requires an in depth study of the clavis, and vice versa.


This website provides a transcription of an early printing of the clavis along with photographs of the book. It was chosen because it presents a good version of the text; it was also easily available in high resolution photographs. Apart from providing a first, and probably fairly accurate impression of the clavis, its main purpose it to serve as a starting point.


From there, I propose to work in a flowing system. The transcription is searchable and can be used like any other full text database for reference purposes. If you have published anything on the materia medica covered in the clavis please make this known in the respective lemma and the main bibliography. If you are interested in contributing an entry, you can either look into the history of the text (findings can also be published on separate pages) or write a commentary. I would also like to ask every new editor to translate one lemma.


The main intended outcomes of the project are a translation and edition of the text with explanatory notes. As a byproduct, the lemmata can also serve as a bibliography to the materia medica discussed.


At this point I would like to emphasize that there is indeed a strong interest in Western medical texts from other fields, which is usually hampered by the lack of translations or other resources. Even if you can only contribute what looks from our specialized point of view as a mere and straightforward translation and some basic bibliography, this may be of help to someone from another institutional setting.


To view the copyright regulations, please click on the icon on bottom of the page. Contributions can be cited as any other secondary literature.


The project is set up as a Wiki because it is a very user friendly format that is also flexible enough to accommodate any potential developments in editing the text. It also displays very clearly which contributor authored which part of the text.


This project will be extended in due course. Some additional resources are already in preparation, and I am always grateful for any suggestions you might have.


There is a lot of interesting material to be discovered in the clavis, and I invite everybody to have a closer look!