Amirdovlat Amasiatsi’s medical treatise “Useless for the Ignorant” can be seen in the photograph.
Concerns over health and medicine were of paramount importance to the Ancient Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia throughout the 11th and 14th centuries. In the Kingdom of Cilicia, the rulers assumed responsibility for hospitals, which had traditionally only been found in monasteries and were governed by the clergy. Hospitals, or bzhshkanotsi, served as educational institutions for future doctors.
As a result of the expulsion of numerous scientists from Armenia following the collapse of the Cilician Kingdom, many of these brilliant minds continued their careers in Europe, where they helped establish the modern scientific standard.
“If a doctor does not understand the essence of the disease, he should not use medicines, so as not to tarnish his name. And if he is not knowledgeable, then it is better not to call him to the patient and not to consider him a doctor at all,” said the medieval Aesculapius (bzhkapet) Amirdovlat Amasiatsi.