Michael Italikos

Michael Italikos
Bornc. 1090
Died1157 (1158)
Constantinople, Eastern Roman Empire
NationalityByzantine Greek
Alma materUniversity of Constantinople
Scientific career
InstitutionsMonastery School of Philippolis
Doctoral advisorTheodore of Smyrna
Doctoral studentsTheodoros Prodromos

Michael Italicus or Italikos (Greek: Μιχαήλ Ἰταλικός; fl. 1130–57) was a Byzantine medical instructor (didaskalos iatron) at the Pantokrator hospital that had been established by Emperor John II Komnenos (r. 1118–43) in 1136.[1] Pantokrator was a medical centre, at which Italicus lectured and explained physicians Hippocrates (460–370 BC) and Galen (129–200), and illustrated diseases through patient cases.[1] His pupil Theodore Prodromos described smallpox.[1] Between 1147 and 1166 he served as the Archbishop of Philippopolis.[2]

He wrote a monody on the death of Andronikos, son of Alexios I. He delivered basilikoi logoi (encomia) to the emperors John II and Manuel I.[3]

  1. ^ a b c Plinio Prioreschi (1996). A History of Medicine: Byzantine and Islamic medicine. Horatius Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-888456-04-2.
  2. ^ M. Loos (30 June 1974). Dualist Heresy in the Middle Ages. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 102. ISBN 978-90-247-1673-9.
  3. ^ Kazhdan, Alexander; Jeffreys, Elizabeth M. (1991). "Basilikos Logos". In Kazhdan, Alexander (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.