Medical dictionaries are commonly available in print, online, or as downloadable software packages for personal computers and smartphones.[1] Other precursors to modern medical dictionaries include lists of terms compiled from the Hippocratic Corpus in the first century AD.[2][3] The Synonyma Simonis Genuensis (the Synonyms of Simon of Genoa), attributed to the physician to Pope Nicholas IV in the year 1288, was printed by Antonius Zarotus at Milan in 1473.Referring to a copy held in the library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Henry wrote in 1905 that "It is the first edition of the first medical dictionary.[3] By the time of Antonio Guaineri (died in 1440[5]) and Savonarola, this work was used alongside others by Oribasius, Isidore of Seville, Mondino dei Liuzzi, Serapion, and Pietro d'Abano.
A page from Robert James's
A Medicinal Dictionary
; London, 1743-45
An illustration from
Appleton's Medical Dictionary
; edited by S. E. Jelliffe (1916)