AFFLACIO, GIOVANNI

AFFLACIO, GIOVANNI. — A Salernitan physician of the second half of the 11th century. He is said to have been a disciple of CONSTANTINE THE AFRICAN. Seven physicians named Giovanni lived almost contemporaneously, so that it is not always easy to identify their lives and works. Following the studies of De Renzi, it has been established that the A. is the Giovanni, a Benedictine, mentioned by PETER THE DEACON. A physician before retiring to the cloister, and perhaps also a teacher in Salerno, he seems to have entered the monastery in 1075, when the city fell into the hands of ROBERT GUISCARD. Declaring himself a disciple of Constantine, he collected his books. He is recognized as the author of a Liber urinarium, although it ends with the words “Explicit liber aureus,” a book that is attributed to Constantine. Another of his books is entitled Curae Iohannis Afflatiis discipuli Constantini de febribus.