The “Second Order”: Interactions between physicians, painters, and stone engravers in the Roman world

Totelin, Laurence ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9576-1643 2025. The “Second Order”: Interactions between physicians, painters, and stone engravers in the Roman world. History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals 67 (1) , pp. 35-50. 10.3368/hopp.67.1.35 Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

While there is a growing body of scholarship on the ancient “medical marketplace,” the interactions between healers and other types of craftspeople are far less studied. This article examines the links between ancient healers and two types of craftspeople, stone engravers and painters. It suggests that healers and these other craftspeople used similar substances, sometimes worrying about counterfeited products; that physicians may have procured pigments and stones from painters/pigment sellers and stone engravers, respectively; and that some painters/pigment sellers and stone engravers may have acquired not insignificant medical knowledge. It concludes that healers generally, and physicians in particular, were part of an ecosystem of craftspeople, in which hierarchies may not always have been those that we find presented by an author such as Galen, who considered himself superior to stone engravers, painters, and other artisans.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DE The Mediterranean Region. The Greco-Roman World
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
ISSN:	2694-3034
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	29 September 2025
Date of Acceptance:	23 April 2025
Last Modified:	10 Dec 2025 12:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/181355

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