Serapion the Younger

Who is Serapion the Younger?

Serapion the Younger was the author of a notable medicinal-botany book entitled The Book of Simple Medicaments. The book is dated 12th or 13th century. He is called "the Younger" to distinguish him from Serapion the Elder, aka Yahya ibn Sarafyun, an earlier medical writer with whom he was often confused. Serapion the Younger's Simple Medicaments was likely written in Arabic, but no Arabic copy survives, and there is no record of a knowledge of the book among medieval Arabic authors. A partial copy survives from the medieval era in Hebrew. One historian of medieval Arabic medicine, Lucien Leclerc, has presented evidence that the book may have been written in Hebrew, not Arabic, even though it is very clearly heavily influenced by the Arabic medicinal literature. In any case, it was translated to Latin in the late 13th century and was widely circulated in late medieval Latin medical circles.

Nothing about Serapion the Younger's biography is on record anywhere. In his only book, there is a quote from something by a certain medical writer who died around 1075. That puts a lower bound on when Serapion the Younger wrote. It is therefore supposed he wrote in the 12th century.