Leoparda

Leoparda (4th century, Byzantium) was a purported gynecologist who served in the court of Gratian (359–383).[1][2][3]

Information about Leoparda is said to come from a book by Emperor Gratian’s physician Theodorus Priscianus that he wrote for the purpose of educating women doctors.[1] He allegedly notes that Leoparda was a respected gynecologist, but that her remedies were no more scientific than those of the Greek Dioscorides. The book is stated to contain quotations from Soranus, Cleopatra, and Aspasia. He is said to have dedicated the book to Leoparda and two other women physicians, Salvina and Victoria.[2]

However, there is no reference to Leoparda or any of the other cited women in Theodorus Priscianus's sole surviving work, the Euporiston. Book III, which details gynaecology in ten chapters, only mentions Victoria, and it seems this is most likely a reference to the Roman goddess of victory.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy, eds. (2000). The biographical dictionary of women in science : pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century. New York: Routledge. ISBN 041592040X.
  2. ^ a b Hurd-Mead, Kate Campbell (1938). A History of Women in Medicine from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. Haddam Press, Haddam; First Edition, p.81.
  3. ^ Mozahs, H.J. (1974). Woman in science : with an introductory chapter on woman's long struggle for things of the mind ([repr.]; [with an introd. by Mildred S. Dresselhaus]. ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press. ISBN 0262630540.
  4. ^ Priscianus, Theodorus (1894). Euporiston, Libri III, Cum Physicorum Fragmento et Additamentis Pseudo-Theodorus, Editi a Valentino Rose. B.G. Teubner, Leipzig, Liber III.