Ippocrate nella tradizione alchemica siriaca e araba

Hippocrates is never mentioned in the Graeco-Egyptian and Byzantine alchemical writings. He is instead presented in the guise of an alchemical hero in the Syriac anthologies of writings on metallic transmutation, which hand down to us two works attributed to the doctor of Cos: a recipe book preserved in two London manuscripts (Egerton 709 and Oriental 1593) and a treatise included in the Cambridge manuscript Mm 6.29, in which Hippocrates, father of medicine and alchemy, is opposed to Homer, corrupter of peoples. In my contribution I present a detailed analysis of these writings, focussing on the most characteristic and innovative aspects of the doctrines and practices attributed to Hippocrates. I will try to understand and contextualise these elements, by exploring various aspects of the reception of Hippocrates in late antiquity as well as in Syriac and Arabic sources: his association with Democritus, his pharmacological expertise, and the role he plays in Arabic alchemical writings attributed to Graeco-Egyptian authors.