What is "catholicon"

Catholicon \Ca*thol"i*con\, n. [Gr. ?, neut. ?, universal. See Catholic.] (Med.) A remedy for all diseases; a panacea. [1913 Webster] ||

n. (context medicine English) A supposed universal remedy.

The Summa grammaticalis quae vocatur Catholicon, or Catholicon (from the Greek Καθολικόν, universal), is a 13th-century Latin dictionary which found wide use throughout Christendom. Some of the entries contain encyclopedic information, and a Latin grammar is also included. The work was created by John Balbi (Johannes Januensis de Balbis), of Genoa, a Dominican, who finished it on March 7, 1286. The work served in the late Middle Ages to interpret the Bible "correctly". The educated citizen could gather from it the substantial knowledge of his time. From 1286 to the late 15th century it was available mainly in manuscripts held by monastic libraries. The Catholicon was one of the first books to be printed, using the new printing technology of Johannes Gutenberg in 1460.

It should be distinguished from Lagadeuc's Catholicon, a Latin-Breton-French dictionary compiled in 1464 by a priest of Tréguier called Jehan Lagadeuc which was published 5 November 1499 (the first printed French dictionary and the first ever trilingual dictionary).

Catholicon may refer to:

• Catholicon, the conventual church at the centre of an abbey
• Katholikon, the primary church in an Orthodox or Eastern Catholic monastery
• Catholicon (Mor Yakub), part of the Holy Liturgy of Mor Yakub of the Syriac Orthodox Church
• Catholicon (book), written in 1286 by Johannes de Balbis of Genoa (Summa grammaticalis quae vocatur Catholicon)
• Catholicon (trilingual dictionary), Breton–Latin–French dictionary written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc and printed in 1499
• Catholicon (electuary), an alleged all-purpose cure (panacea) used in pre-modern medicine

In pre-modern medicine, catholicon was a soft electuary, so called as being supposedly universal in its curative and prophylactic abilities (see panacea); or a purger of all humours.

Different authors have given different recipes for catholicon. That called Catholicon Nicholai was the most common in use; it consisted of sixteen ingredients, the chief being tamarinds, cassia, senna, and rhubarb. It was said to be double (catholicon duplicatum or duplex) when there was a double portion of senna and rhubarb. The catholicon for clysters, which was injected into the rectum, only differed from this in that it had no rhubarb, and that honey was used instead of sugar when mixing the drug with water in forming the electuary.

An example recipe for catholicon duplicatum follows:

"The Double Catholicon of Nicolai, or Compound Electuary of Rhubarb, prepared by simmering over a slow fire half a pound of polypody root; 2 ounces of succory root; 1 ounce of liquorice root; 3 ounces of the leaves of agrimony and spleen wort; 6 pounds of water till reduced two-thirds; then add 6 drachms [3/4 ounce] of fennel-seeds, strain and add 4 pounds of sugar, boil to the consistence of syrup, and add 4 ounces each of extract of cassia and pulp of tamarinds. Then add by degrees 4 ounces each of powdered rhubarb and senna leaves, 1 ounce of liquorice root, 2 ounces of seeds of violet, 1 ounce of the four cold seeds [pumpkin, gourd, melon, cucumber], half an ounce of fennel-seeds, and mix and form an electuary. It is too troublesome in the preparation to be much used. Without the rhubarb, and with honey instead of sugar, it forms a good enema."

Spirit of Mindererus, a solution of ammonium acetate in alcohol, was also considered a catholicon among pre-modern surgeons.

The term catholicon also specifically referred to remedies for women. For example, aurum vitae, or the gold of life, was a panacean catholicon used in the middle 18th century and later. It consisted of gold and corrosive sublimate.

By the 19th century, catholicons had fallen into disuse.

Catholicon (from Greek Καθολικόν, meaning "universal") is a 15th-century Breton- French- Latin dictionary. It is the first Breton dictionary and also the first French dictionary. It contains six thousand entries and was compiled in 1464 by the Breton priest Jehan Lagadeuc. It was printed in 1499 in Tréguier. A manuscript of the dictionary is preserved in the national library in Paris identified as Latin 7656.

This Catholicon is referred to by some historians as the Catholicon Armoricum, in reference to Armorica which is a name for Brittany in Latin. It is a different dictionary than the Catholicon Anglicum which is an English-Latin dictionary compiled at very nearly the same time in England. The Catholicon Armoricum is also to be distinguished from the Catholicon of John of Genoa a dictionary dated late 13th century written in Italy.