In classical Greek medicine, neither Hippocrates nor Galen considered the condition of the urine to be an important sign of systemic diseases, and they did not relate its characteristics to definite illnesses, except in obvious cases of urinary tract disease. In their teaching, urine was used together with other physical signs as a prognostic indicator. With Theophilus, however, uroscopy gained an important role, and the appearance of the urine became pathognomic of specific diseases. De Urinis owed its popularity to this new approach and to its didactic character, as it was written as a practical handbook. After the 12th century, De Urinis occupied an assured position among the few ancient medical treatises that in Latin translation formed a worldwide teaching canon for medieval and Renaissance medical schools.

In the 6th-7th centuries AD, treatises on uroscopy were written by Theophilus, Magnus and the author of work transmitted through the ms. Parisinus gr. 2260, Stephanus of Athens. These works are the first to deal comprehensively with the problem of urines, uroscopy and their clinical role, so that a philological and content analysis and examination of their reciprocal relationships may clarify an important period in the birth and development of Byzantine uroscopy, which represents a significant epistemological passage in the medieval history of medicine (e.g. the positing of relationships between physical signs and systemic diseases).

Background: An article published in 2012 in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology discussed the historical sources presenting the Byzantine Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita as an expert in cosmetic and pharmacological remedies that could give their users a youthful appearance and a kind of eternal youth. However, it did not take into account a dermatological recipe attributed to Zoe which text transmission has preserved. Aims:To examine some ingredients of Zoe's recipe from a historical medical point of view and contextualize the text in the tradition of ancient medical matter, physiology of aging, and gender pharmacological skills.Methods: After contextualizing the recipe from the historical medical point of view, some of its ingredients have been analyzed in relation not only to their use in the most authoritative pharmacological and medical sources of antiquity but also to their symbolic meaning. Results:The analysis of Zoe's dermatological recipe allowed to highlight:1. The links between cosmetics and medicine in Greek and Roman Antiquity.2. The reason why ancient sources dealing with medical matter attributed to certain substances and plants the power to save the human body from old age and decay.3. The consistency between the ingredients of Zoe's recipe and the humoral physiology by genders and by age of Hippocrates.4. The existence of a female tradition in pharmacological competence. Conclusion:Cosmetic dermatology of antiquity is the perfect point in which survival of the myth and rational pharmacology overlap.

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