La Pharmacopoea generalis (Strasbourg, 1783) de Jacob Reinbold Spielmann

Abstract

Jacob Reinbold Spielmann’s Pharmacopoea generalis – Apothecary, physician and professor (of medicine, of Greek and Latin poetry, of eloquence, but also of chemistry, of botany and of pharmacognosy) at the University of Strasbourg, Jacob Reinbold Spielmann (1722-1783) – especially known for his treatise of chemistry entitled Institutiones chemicae praelectionibus academicis accomodatae (published in 1763) – composed later the Pharmacopoea generalis (published in 1783). This pharmacopoea, the import of which was local – because of its appearance prior to the first edition in France of Codex pharmaceuticus Gallicus (1818) –, and commonly called «Pharmacopoea from Strasbourg», is completely written in Latin. This work is divided in two main parts : the first one is relating to natural substances for pharmaceutical use – from animal, mineral and herbal origin –, while the second one constitutes a kind of materia medica and compiles a list of numerous formulae of pharmaceutical compositions, classified by galenic forms and in alphabetic order. In the bibliography of his Pharmacopoea generalis, Spielmann quotes different authors of pharmacopoeas or of other scientific books as well ancient (Andromachos, Celsius, Dioscorides, Galen, Hippocrates, but also Avicenna, Mesue the Elder and Al-Razi) as more recent or even contemporary (Buffon, Charas, Lemery, Pomet and Sydenham).