Hippocrates of Cos is the pre-eminent figure in the history of medicine, revered as the "Father of European Medicine" and the symbol of medical ethics. Born around 460 BC, he hailed from the Asclepiad family and was the first to detach the healing arts from magic and superstition, transforming them into a scientific discipline based on empiricism, logic, and rigorous observation. His name is inextricably linked to the Hippocratic Corpus (Corpus Hippocraticum)—a vast collection of over sixty treatises that laid the foundations for medical diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. His humanistic approach and the famous Hippocratic Oath remain an eternal moral code that defines the professional and human duty of physicians through the ages.
The professional path of Hippocrates and his school was marked by the revolutionary understanding of that era—that disease is a natural process caused by an imbalance in the organism rather than divine wrath. In the Iztok-Zapad catalog, his legacy is represented through an ambitious three-volume series, offering Bulgarian readers direct translations from Ancient Greek for the first time. These editions, accompanied by scholarly apparatus and detailed commentaries, reveal Hippocrates not only as a healer but as a philosopher for whom medicine was both a science and an art. His treatises remain relevant today, reminding us of the significance of medical intuition and the relationship between individual health and the environment.
- "Treatises, Volume 1" - the first Bulgarian edition of selected texts from the Corpus, translated directly from the original language, including fundamental guidelines on the art of medicine.
- "Treatises, Volume 2" - a continuation of the exploration of the Hippocratic paradigm, focusing on diagnostic methods and ethical norms in doctor-patient communication.
- "Treatises, Volume 3" - the concluding part of the series, summarizing the school's experience and its observations on human nature and the practice of healing.
Today, the name of Hippocrates remains a pillar of professional morality, inspiring modern physicians to seek truth through the "pearls of art" within the depths of science. His presence in the Iztok-Zapad collection is a valuable contribution to national culture, preserving the sources of European thought and humanism for future generations.
