Birds in Armenian Medicine

A 6th- or 7th-century Greek-Armenian pharmaceutical dictionary known as the Galen dictionary, consisting principally of plant terms thought to derive from Galen's Simples, also contains 28 words denoting birds, few of which are used medicinally in Galen or Dioscorides. A suggested source for the bird terms is a 2nd-century AD Greek medical treatise called Cyranides, which provides commentary on minerals, plants, & animals considered to have medicinal value & mentions 23 of the bird species found in the Galen dictionary. For each ornithological entry in the Galen dictionary, the full Greek text of any corresponding Cyranides commentary is presented with translation; & parallel commentaries in other Greek, Syriac, & Arab sources are summarized. 26 References. J. Hitchcock