Pulses by Giles of Corbeil with gloss, 13th century

The first eight folios of MS 173 contain the verses on pulses by the twelfth to thirteenth-century French poet and physician, Giles of Corbeil (also known as Aegidius Corboliensis). Giles was educated at the medical school of Salerno, the first and one of the most renowned schools for medical knowledge in Western Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Giles returned to Paris in the late twelfth century and became a teacher, canon of Notre Dame and also court physician to King Phillip II. Giles' text on pulses, contained in MS 173 is a poetic summary of a treatise on pulses attributed to Philaretus, possibly from the seventh century. A Latin translation of this seventh-century Greek text became part of the grouping of medical instructional texts known as the 'Articella' that became the standard medical curriculum at universities like Salerno in the Middle Ages. These poetic verses by Giles were designed to help his students with memorisation of important medical diagnostic skills contained in the text by Philaretus.