Medieval · Old French
Le Regime du corps
1350 source with facsimile pages, edited transcription, and translation.
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Poetry from the Physician Tradition
Explore centuries of verse by physicians, for physicians, and about the healing arts. Search our editions, discover curated works, and study the enduring dialogue between medicine and poetry.
Available editions
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Published Poet Doctor editions with facsimile pages, source text, translation, and rights metadata.
Renaissance · Latin
De viribus herbarum
1477 source with facsimile pages, edited transcription, and translation.
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Renaissance · Latin
In interpretationem Galeni
A 1547 dialogue on Galen, Hippocrates, interpretation, and the habits of medical reading.
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Renaissance · Latin
Poemata
1561 source with facsimile pages, edited transcription, and translation.
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Renaissance · Latin
Icones veterum aliquot, ac recentium medicorum, philosophorumque elegiolis suis editae
1574 source with facsimile pages, edited transcription, and translation.
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Early Modern · Arabic
Three Arabic rajaz medical poems in MS Arabic 129 part 2
1700 source with facsimile pages, edited transcription, and translation.
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Nineteenth Century · French
La Luciniade du docteur Sacombe
1815 source with facsimile pages, edited transcription, and translation.
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Medieval · Latin
Aegidii Corboliensis carmina medica
1826 source with facsimile pages, edited transcription, and translation.
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Nineteenth century · French
Le Parnasse médical français
A French dictionary of physician-poets, presented with scans, corrected French, and English translation.
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Reference Points
Landmark works from the physician-poet tradition, spanning ten centuries and several languages. These are collection context, not all finished Poet Doctor editions.
Physician-Poetry Across World Traditions
These archives and collections document the global tradition of poetry by physicians, from Ibn Sina's Arabic medical verse to Sanskrit Ayurvedic compendiums, the School of Salerno, and contemporary medical humanities.
Arabic & Islamic
- NLM Islamic Medical Manuscripts — Medical Poetry Ibn Sina's Poem on Medicine, poems on pulse, urine, eye diseases, and bloodletting.
- Wellcome Arabic Manuscripts Online Arabic manuscripts, including commentaries on Avicenna's medical poetry.
- Yale Arabic & Persian Medical Manuscripts Works by Avicenna and al-Razi from the Cushing/Whitney Medical Historical Library.
Latin & Neo-Latin
- CAMENA Neo-Latin Corpus Neo-Latin poetry in TEI XML, including physician-humanist writers.
- Fracastoro, Syphilis sive morbus gallicus The Latin poem that named syphilis.
- Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum The most famous medieval medical poem: rhyming Latin verse on health from the School of Salerno.
- Warwick Neo-Latin Texts Directory Digital collections of Neo-Latin texts, including medical and botanical treatises.
French
- Chéreau, Le Parnasse Médical Français A foundational dictionary of French physician-poets, also available through Gallica.
- Medic@ (BIU Santé, Paris) Digitized medical-historical documents and databases.
Indian & Ayurvedic
- e-Charaka Samhita A foundational Ayurvedic text in Sanskrit verse, with English translation.
- e-Sushruta Samhita The surgical compendium of ancient Ayurveda.
Chinese
- CUHK Chinese Medicine Texts Ancient Chinese medical texts, many using songs, odes, and rhymed forms as memory aids.
English & German
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Complete poetical works of the American physician-poet.
- Keats-Shelley House Manuscripts Autograph manuscripts of John Keats, who trained as a surgeon-apothecary before becoming a poet.
- Deutsches Textarchiv Historical German texts, including Schiller, the military surgeon turned poet.
Major Archives
- Wellcome Collection Health, medicine, and culture collections across formats.
- Medical Heritage Library Open-access history of medicine texts.
- The Casebooks Project A model digital edition of medical-astrological consultations.
- Perseus / Scaife Viewer The Hippocratic corpus and Galen in Greek, with reading tools for classical medicine.
Contemporary
- JAMA Poetry and Medicine Poems published in JAMA's medical humanities pages.
- LitMed (NYU) Annotated works at the intersection of literature, arts, and medicine.