Our report is based on a text of the philosopher Hermogenes entitled Liber medicine orinalibus now conserved in Cod. Casin. 69 (10th century), pp 545–551, of the Montecassino Archive. This text was written in Beneventano-Cassinese characters. The Liber medicine orinalibus presents an articulate description of urines, which is interesting because of the information it provides regarding the knowledge of medicine in the 2nd century AD. This text allows us to appreciate the level reached in urine diagnostics that were performed in the medical laboratory annexed to the ‘Ospitium’.

Due to the intense relationship between Byzantium and the Abbey of Montecassino, which lasted for about three centuries, some of the Hippocratic Medical Texts were gathered by the Roman Catholic Church during the last years of the Roman Empire. Some texts were transferred directly from the Byzantine Empire to the abbey. Some of the earliest texts which were written in Greek and Latin have been lost; afterwards they were only written in Latin and in Beneventano-Cassinese type. They constituted the basis of medical assistance that was given in the ‘ospitia’ near the monastery to sick monks and pilgrims needing treatment on their way from Rome to Monte Sant’Angelo of Gargano. The Diuresis et pulsis secundum praecepta Dionisi is kept in Cod. Cas. No. 69 (10th century), pp 551–562, in the Montecassino archive. The author of this text tried to perform a urine examination considering the clinical signs, such as high temperature and pulse examination. The text is thought to have been written by Dionysius, a Hippocratic physician and contemporary of Herophilus, who lived around the 4th century BC. This text was read again in the Salernitan Medical School and compared with other texts from Arabic countries also influenced by Hippocrates.

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