Key Players in the Medieval Period

Al Farabi 872-950 A Muslim mathematician, logician, philosopher and educator. He advanced the view that philosophy and revelation are two different ways of arriving at the truth.
Al Jahiz 781-868 An Arabic literary scholar and scientist who wrote on many topics including Arabic literature, biology, zoology, history, philosophy, theology and disability. He makes a case for social inclusion of the disabled—unusual for his time.
Albertus Magnus 1193?-1282 A German philosopher, theologian and scholastic. He became famous for his comprehensive knowledge and advocacy for the peaceful coexistence of science and religion. He was the first medieval scholar to apply Aristotle's philosophy to Christian thought. His synthesis of Greek rationalism and Christian docrine came to define Catholic philosophy. He wrote about voice and articulation
Albucasis (Al Zahrawi) (Albucasis (Al Zahrawi) 936-1013 A Spanish-Arabian physician who did much to raise the status of surgery of his day. His book The Collection, or Tasrif was a discussion of surgery and medicine of his time.
Alcuin 735-804 A Latinist, astrologer, classicist, and teacher of rhetoric. He founded schools and a significant library in York, England and worked with Charlemagne to elevate literacy and scholarship throughout the Carolingian empire (France).
Ali Bin Rabban Al-Tabari, known as Ali 838-870 A Persian physician and author of the first Arabic Medical Encyclopedia (The Paradise of Wisdom). Ali is perhaps most well known for being the teacher of the more famous Al Rhazes.
Averroes 1126-1198 An Islamic religious philosopher who integrated Islamic traditions with ancient Greek thought. He produced a series of summaries and commentaries on most of Aristotle's works (1169-95) and on Plato's Republic, which exerted considerable influence in both the Islamic world and Europe for centuries.
Avicenna (also known as Ibn Sina) 980-1037 A Muslim and native of Persia, is perhaps the best known of all Islamic physicians. He was physician, scientist, philosopher, statesman and poet. He wrote nearly 270 different treatises, many of them medical. His textbook, called the Canon of Medicine was used for 600 years in Europe as well as in the Islamic World
Balbulus 840-912 A Swiss musician, teacher, and writer and monk. His name indicated that he had a speech problem.
Bernard of Gordon 1250-1318 A physician who studied and taught at the University of Montpellier, France around 1308. He completed his best known work, Lily of Medicine, in 1305. This was an encyclopedia of diseases with their symptoms, causes, effects, and treatments.
Boethius 480-525 A Roman statesman, a philosopher and a rhetorician. In his book the Overview of the Structure of Rhetori, adopts and forwards Aristotle's trivium of rhetoric, grammar, and logic as a means for teaching liberal arts. He was also connected with other texts that were used to teach liberal arts and rhetoric both during his time and afterwards.
Chaucer 1343-1400 Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories in a frame story, between 1387 and 1400. The tales are about a group of thirty people who travel as pilgrims to Canterbury (England). The pilgrims, who come from all layers of society and tell stories to each other to kill time during their travels.
Constantine the African 1015-1087 A physician and monk who translated Galen's work in Arabic into Latin
De Chauliac 1300-1380 A surgeon and physician to three popes at Avignon. He authored a physician's manual that was considered indispensable to his followers for three centuries. Following the theory of humors of his day, he ascribed stuttering to either excessive moisture or dryness of the tongue or brain. The treatments for stuttering and most other ailments involved adjusting the body's humors. (from Wingate, p. 41)
Eustacia 6 C AD Mystic who helped cure a women with a paralyzed tongue.
Giacomo da Forli 1360-1414 A medieval scholastic, held a chair in the field of medical theory at the university of Padua in Italy the early 15th century. He wrote about the reconciliation of the ideas of Aristotle with the tenets of Hippocrates and Galen. He was known particularly for his studies of embryology.
Haly Abbas (also known as Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi, and Masoudi) 982-994 A Persian physician and psychologist most famous for his 980 AD book called Complete book of the medical art, later re-titled the Complete art of medicine.
Hildegard of Bingen 1098-1179 A Christian mystic, a nun, and head of a Benedictine convent in Germany. She wrote on a wide variety of topics, including theological, botanical, and medicinal texts and liturgical songs, poems, and the first surviving morality play.
Johannes Eckhart 1260-1327 A Dominican theologian and educator who argued a learner should isolate himself, freeing himself from things and people.
Libanius of Antioch 314-393 A well known rhetorician who developed teaching exercises for students of rhetoric (progymnasmata)
Maimonides (full name:Moses ben Maimon) 1138-1204 A rabbi and philosopher. His main project was to reconcile Judiasm with what he considered to be the best scientific thinking of the day—the Aristotelian system.
Nemesius 390-??? A Syrian physician and bishop. His main work, On the Nature of Man, written about 400 AD contained a detailed description of Galenic anatomy and physiology. He subscribed to and elaborated on ventricular theory
Paul of Aegina 625-690 A compiler of ancient Greek and Roman medical works. His Medical Compendious became a standard medical textbook. His specialty was the development
Peter of Abano 1250-1316 An Italian philosopher, astronomer, and medical authority who translated "Problems of Aristotle" from the Greek into Latin. He also wrote on various aspects of speech and hearing problems. In his book Conciliator he tried to reconcile the conflicting views of philosophical and medical authorities of his time.
Rhazes or Al Rhazes or Al Razi 865-925 A Persian physician, philosopher, pharmacist, and scholar who made fundamental and enduring contributions to science and medical practice. He wrote over 180 books and articles on different aspects of philosophy and medicine.
Rudolph Agricola 1444-1485 A Dutch scholar, humanist, teacher and musician. He is considered to be the father of northern European humanism. He taught person who was deaf and non-speaking to communicate orally and in writing.
St Augustine of Hippo 354-430 A bishop most remembered for his theological work. He also contributed to the fields of medicine, rhetoric, disability, and education. He subscribed to ventricular theory and forwarded a model for psycholinguistic processing of words.
St Blaise ? - 316 A fourth century Armenian Bishop and physician who became famous for his treatment of diseases of the throat.
St Francis of Assisi 1181-1226 A founder of the Franciscan Order of Christianity that forwarded egalitarian treatment of the poor and disabled.
St Louis 1214-1270 The King of France, known for his kindness toward the poor, the ill, and the disabled. Created a refuge for the blind—the worlds first.
St Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274 A medieval scholastic who worked to reconcile Aristotle's philosophy with Christian doctrine. Aquinas's great work is the Summa Theologiae. His Opera Omnia fills many volumes
St Zoticos 4th Century AD A Greek Christian martyr who created a community for those with leprosy—against the wishes of Constantine.
Taddeo Alderotti 1210-1295 An Italian physician and medical educator. He founded a medical school in Bologna, Italy were he reintroduced Hippocratic practices of teaching students at the patient's bedside
Venerable Bede 673-736 An English Benedictine Monk, a historian and an author. His most famous book was Ecclesiastical History of the English People.