Canonical Texts
The works that defined medical thinking across centuries.
Airs, Waters, Places
c. 400 BCE51deep
Aphorisms
c. 430–380 BCE (disputed)52deep
Aqrabadhin (Dispensatory)
circa 850-869 CE46deep
Being and Nothingness (1943)
194367deep
Being and Time
192764deep
Canon of Medicine
c. 102554deep
Caraka Samhita
compiled c. 3rd-2nd century BCE; redacted by Drdhabala c. 4th-5th century CE31strong
Codex Cruz-Badianus (Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis)
155261deep
Commentaries on the History and Cure of Diseases
180238strong
De Humani Corporis Fabrica
154338strong
De Materia Medica
c. A.D. 60–7865deep
De Medicina
c. 25–35 CE51deep
De Motu Cordis
1628134deep
De Usu Partium (On the Usefulness of the Parts)
c. 162–175 CE40deep
Diseases of Women (Gynaikeia)
c. 450–350 BCE26strong
Dynamical Therapeutics
189364deep
Ebers Papyrus
c. 1534 BCE (surviving copy); possibly earlier originals22strong
Edwin Smith Papyrus
c. 1550 BCE (copy); original possibly c. 3000–2500 BCE26strong
Epidemics (Hippocratic Corpus)
c. 410–350 BCE (Books I and III); later books c. 350 BCE–c. 200 BCE34strong
Gynecology (Soranus)
c. 100-138 CE (Greek original); Temkin Eng. tr. 195662deep
Hippocratic Corpus
c. 450–100 BCE (composition); assembled c. 280–250 BCE (Alexandria)165deep
Hippocratic Oath
c. 5th-4th century BCE73deep
Iliad
c. 8th century BCE23strong
Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology
201724strong
Method of Medicine
c. 175-193 CE (composition); 1991 (Hankinson translation of Books I-II)62deep
Nan-Ching (Classic of Difficult Issues)
ca. first or second century C.E.16moderate
Natural History (Pliny the Elder)
77-79 CE71deep
Nature of Man
31strong
Nicomachean Ethics
c. 340 BCE32strong
On the Sacred Disease
c. 430–400 BCE (disputed)35strong
Organon of Medicine
1st ed. 1810; 2nd ed. 1819; 3rd ed. 1824; 4th ed. 1829; 5th ed. 1833; 6th ed. composed c. 1842, published 192161deep
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
168744deep
Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum
c. 12th-13th century (date disputed)32strong
Specific Diagnosis
188366deep
Summa Theologiae
1265-127429strong
Susruta Samhita
compiled c. 600 BCE-200 CE; redacted before c. 500 CE30strong
The Anatomy of Melancholy
162126strong
The Belmont Report
April 18, 197922strong
The Metamorphosis of Plants
179034strong
The Nuremberg Code (1947)
August 19, 194711moderate
The Trotula
c. 1100--1200 (composed); 1544 (first printed edition)60deep
Timaeus
c. 360 BCE24strong
Zoological Philosophy (Philosophie Zoologique)
1809 (Paris); Eng. tr. Hugh Elliot 191453deep