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Botany Staff

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Areas of Specialty
     My research deals with the history of botany, particularly the medicinal plants, in the cultures that flourished around the Mediterranean Sea from Antiquity to the 17th century A.D.: Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the Middle Ages, the Arabic World, and the Renaissance. I study ancient texts in their original language (Greek, Latin, Arabic), prepare critical editions of major works (with English translation and scientific analysis), search in libraries all across the world for unknown or overlooked texts in ancient manuscript books, and prepare reference works on ancient botany, therapeutics, and plant representations (paper and internet publications). My approach is trans-disciplinary; not only philological and historical, but also botanical and medical, ethnological and anthropological, constituting the historical ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology. My major research programs include A Flora of Classical Antiquity, Medicinal Plants of Antiquity, and World Catalogue of Greek Medical Manuscripts. To complete my research I have a constantly growing library collection specifically devoted to the topic and accessible to scholars. It includes reference works, monographs, journals, offprints, and pamphlets, black and white microfilms of ancient manuscripts, and color slides of plant representations from manuscripts, incunabula and 16th century printed books, plus paper files (documentation), computer data bases, and other instrumenta sudiorum, with a particular emphasis on primary sources. Since 2007, I have been the Scientific Director of the newly created "Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions", based in Washington DC.

Web Page

Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions

Recent Publications - (All Publications)

Abraham, Curtis and Touwaide, Alain 2012. When Hippocrates had a headache .... The New Scientist, 213(2852): 30-31. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(12)60422-9

Touwaide, Alain 2012. Printing Greek Medicine in the Renaissance. Scholars, Collections, Opportunities, and Challenges Introduction. Early Science and Medicine, 17(4): 371-377. doi:10.1163/1573382320120001

Touwaide, Alain 2011. A 15th-century treatise on kidney affections and their treatment? A first approach. Journal of nephrology, 24(Supplement 17): 108-113. doi:10.5301/JN.2011.7764

Touwaide, Alain 2010. History of Botany as Ethnobotany. Proposals toward a new approach to the ancient legacy. In: Pochettino, Maria L., Ladio, A. H. and Arenas, P. M., Traditions and Transformations in Ethnobotany/Tradiciones y Transformaciones en Etnobotanica - Proceedings of the ICEB 2009. San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina: CYTED - Programa Iberoamericano Ciencia y Tecnologia para el Desarrollo, pp.55-63.

Touwaide, Alain 2010. Botany. In: Classen, Albrecht, Handbook of Medieval Studies. Terms, Methods, Trends. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp.145-181.

Touwaide, Alain 2010. Byzantine Sciences. In: Classen, Albrecht, Handbook of Medieval Studies. Terms, Methods, Trends. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp.195-239.

Touwaide, Alain 2010. Codicology and Paleography. In: Classen, Albrecht, Handbook of Medieval Studies. Terms, Methods, Trends. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp.266-329.

Touwaide, Alain 2010. Pharmacy. In: Classen, Albrecht, Handbook of Medieval Studies. Terms, Methods, Trends. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp.1056-1090.

Touwaide, Alain 2010. Transfer of Knowledge. In: Classen, Albrecht, Handbook of Medieval Studies. Terms, Methods, Trends. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp.1368-1399.

Touwaide, Alain 2010. Pharmaceutical Literature. In: Classen, Albrecht, Handbook of Medieval Studies. Terms, Methods, Trends. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp.1979-2000.

Touwaide, Alain 2010. Pharmacology. In: Fantham, Elaine and Gagarin, Michael, Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, vol. 5. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.239-241.

Touwaide, Alain 2010. Botany. In: Fantham, Elaine and Gagarin, Michael, Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.20-22.

Touwaide, Alain 2010. Aphrodisiacs. In: Fantham, Elaine and Gagarin, Michael, Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.125-127.

De Santo, Natale G., Bellinghieri, Guido, Touwaide, Alain, Massry, Shaul G., Savica, Vincenzo and Eknoyan, Garabed 2009. History of Nephrology: a process confronted with changing times and of those who practiced it. Journal of nephrology, 22: S1-S2.

Touwaide, Alain 2009. Kidney dysfunction, from the Arabic to the Byzantine world in 11(th) and 12(th) century southern Italy. Journal of nephrology, 22: S12-S20.

Touwaide, Alain 2009. Foreign vs. Local New Horizons, and Ancient Dilemmas and Strategies?. Early Science and Medicine, 14(6): 765-788.

Touwaide, Alain 2009. Fluid Picture-Making across Borders Genres, Media. Botanical Illustration from Byzantium to Baghdad, Ninth to Thirteenth Centuries. In: Anderson, Jaynie, Crossing Cultures: Conflict, Migration, and Convergence. The Proceedings of the 32nd International Congress in the History of Art (Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art, CIHA), The University of Melbourne, 13-18 January 2008. Carlton, Australia: Miegunyah Press, pp.159-163.

Touwaide, Alain 2009. Byzantine Medical Manuscripts. Towards a New Catalogue, with a Specimen for an Annotated Checklist of Manuscripts Based on an Index of Diel's Catalogue. Byzantion, 79: 453-595.

Touwaide, Alain 2009. Translation and Transliteration of Plant Names in Hunayn b. Ishaq and Istifan b. Basil's Arabic Version of Dioscorides, De materia medica. Al-Qantara - Revista de Estudios Arabes, XXX(2): 557-580.

Touwaide, A. 2009. Introduction to the Special Fascicle "Indigenous vs. Foreign: Early-Modern Materia Medica in Comparative Perspective". Early Science and Medicine, 14(6): 677-679.

Touwaide, Alain 2009. Introduction. In: Tacuinum Sanitatis. Barcelona: M. Moleiro, pp.11-12.

Touwaide, Alain 2009. A Way of Life. In: Tacuinum Sanitatis. Barcelona: M. Moleiro, pp.13-30.

Touwaide, Alain 2009. A New Format. In: Tacuinum Sanitatis. Barcelona: M. Moleiro, pp.31-52.

Touwaide, Alain 2009. Health, disease and therapeutics. In: Tacuinum Sanitatis. Barcelona: M. Moleiro, pp.53-74.

Touwaide, Alain (ed.) 2009. Indigenous vs. Foreign: Early-Modern Materia Medica in Comparative Perspective Leiden: Brill. (Early Science and Medicine; 14) 112 pages.

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