Byzantine medicine
Overview
Byzantine Medicine drew largely on Ancient Greek and Roman knowledge, tending to compile works into textbooks, such as Paul of Aegina's compendium. However, late antiquity witnessed a revolution in the medical scene, many sources mention Hospitals in passing (although their own History can be drawn back to Imperial Rome), and Constantinople doubtless was the center of such activities in the Middle Ages, owing to it's geographical position, wealth and Ancient knowledge. Byzantine medical texts tended to be elaborately decorated with many fine illustrations, highlighting the particular ailment.
Arguably the first Byzantine Physician was Vienna Dioscurides, a resident in Rome during the late 5th Century. and author of another compendium of medical knowledge, materia medica. Like most Byzantine Physicians, he drew his inspiration from Ancient Source such as Galen and Hippocrates, though this is not to say that Byzantine Physicians did not make revisions acknowledging the flaws of the earlier 'fathers of Medicine', Oribasius, perhaps the greatest Byzantine compiler of Medical knowledge, frequently made revisions noting where older methods had been incorrect. Several of his works, along with many other Byzantine Physicians, were translated into Latin, and eventually, during the Enlightenment and Age of Reason, into English and French.
The last great Byzantine Physician was Actuarius, who lived in the early 14th Century in Constantinople. His works on Urine laid much of the foundation for study in that field. However, from the beginning of the end of Byzantium, in the latter 12th Century, to the end in 1453, there is very little outpouring in medical knowledge, largely due to the turmoil the Empire was facing on both fronts, following it's resurrection after the Latin Empire and the dwindling population of Constantinople due to plague and War. Nevertheless, Byzantine Medicine is extremely important both in terms of new discoveries made in that period (at a time when Western Europe was in turmoil), the careful protecting of Ancient Greek and Roman knowledge through famous compendiums as well as the revision of it and finally, the effect it had in transferring knowledge to both Renaissance Italy and Arabia.
Links
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/library/historical/artifacts/antiqua/byzantine.cfm
http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/geanakoplos_twoworlds_5.html