Petros Bouras-Vallianatos

Petros Bouras-Vallianatos FRHistS is a Greek historian of medicine, author, and academic. He is the author of Innovation in Byzantine medicine. Bouras-Vallianatos is best known for this work on late antique and Byzantine medicine.

Petros Bouras-Vallianatos FRHistS
Occupation(s)	Historian of medicine, Byzantinist, author
Awards	The Prize for Young Historians by the International Academy of the History of Science The Estes Prize by the American Association for the History of Medicine (2022)
Academic background
Education	BA, MPharm, MSt, PhD
Alma mater	King’s College London, University of Oxford, University of Athens
Academic work
Discipline	History of Medicine
Sub-discipline	History of Byzantine Medicine
Institutions	University of Athens
Notable works	Innovation in Byzantine medicine (2020, OUP)

Biography

Bouras-Vallianatos was born in Cephalonia, Greece, and studied pharmacy at the University of Athens and classics and ancient history at King's College London. He then studied late antique and Byzantine history and literature at the University of Oxford, before earning a doctorate in the History of Medicine at King’s College London. From 2015 to 2019, Bouras-Vallianatos held a Wellcome Research Fellowship at King’s College London, and from 2019 to 2022, he held a Wellcome Lectureship in the history of medicine at the University of Edinburgh. In 2021, he was awarded the Prize for Young Historians by the International Academy of the History of Science for his book Innovation in Byzantine medicine. His long pathway article on ‘Cross-Cultural Transfer of Medical Knowledge in the Medieval Mediterranean: The Introduction and Dissemination of Sugar-Based Potions from the Islamic World to Byzantium’ in Speculum (2021) has been chosen as ‘Article of the Month’, November 2021, by the Mediterranean Seminar and was awarded the 2022 Estes Prize by the American Association for the History of Medicine. In September 2022, Bouras-Vallianatos became associate professor of history of science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He holds the honorary fellowship in history at the University of Edinburgh, and he is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Bouras-Vallianatos serves as the senior editor of the series "Global Histories of Premodern Health and Healing" by the Edinburgh University Press, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies.

Select publications

Books (monographs)

• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. Innovation in Byzantine medicine: the writings of John Zacharias Aktouarios (c. 1275-c. 1330). Oxford University Press, 2020.

Edited volumes

• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros, and Dionysios Stathakopoulos, eds. Drugs in the Medieval Mediterranean: Transmission and Circulation of Pharmacological Knowledge. Cambridge University Press, 2023. doi:10.1017/9781009389792
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros, ed., Exploring Greek Manuscripts in the Library at Wellcome Collection in London, Routledge, 2020. doi:10.4324/9780429470035
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros, and Sophia Xenophontos, eds. Greek Medical Literature and Its Readers: From Hippocrates to Islam and Byzantium. Routledge, 2018. doi:10.4324/9781351205276
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros, and Barbara Zipser, eds. Brill's Companion to the Reception of Galen. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2019. doi:10.1163/9789004394353

Articles

• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros, and Fabian Käs. “Treating with minerals in the Middle Ages: the rare substance mūmiyāʾ (pitch-asphalt) and its medicinal uses in Byzantium,” (2024), Medical History: 1-14. doi:10.1017/mdh.2024.25
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. “Cross-cultural Transfer of Medical Knowledge in the Medieval Mediterranean: The Introduction and Dissemination of Sugar-based Potions from the Islamic World to Byzantium,” (2021), Speculum 96.4: 963-1008. doi:10.1086/715838
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. “Modelled on Archigenes theiotatos: Alexander of Tralles and his Use of Natural Remedies (physika).” Mnemosyne 69, no. 3 (2016): 382-396. doi:10.1163/1568525X-12341857
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. "Galen’s reception in Byzantium: Symeon Seth and his refutation of Galenic theories on human physiology." Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 55, no. 2 (2015): 431-469.
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. "Greek Manuscripts at the Wellcome Library in London: A Descriptive Catalogue." Medical History 59, no. 2 (2015): 275. doi:10.1017/mdh.2015.6
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. "Clinical experience in late antiquity: Alexander of Tralles and the therapy of epilepsy." Medical History 58, no. 3 (2014): 337-353. doi:10.1017/mdh.2014.27

Book chapters and editing

• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. Examining a Previously Unknown Pharmacological Potpourri: A New Witness to Late Byzantine Therapeutics and Its Expansion through Appropriations from the Islamicate and Latin Medical Traditions (2024) in A Key to Locked Doors, eds. F. Käs, J. Kley, F. Hedderich. Leiden: Brill, 450-504. doi:10.1163/9789004705883_023
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. Breastmilk as a Therapeutic Agent in Ancient and Early Byzantine Medical Literature (2023) in Breastfeeding and Mothering in Antiquity and Early Byzantium, eds. S. Constantinou and A. Skouroumouni-Stavrinou. Abingdon: Routledge, 105-129. doi:10.4324/9781003265658-6
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. Diagrams in Greek Medical Manuscripts, (2022) in The Diagram as Paradigm: Cross-Cultural Approaches, eds. J. Hamburger, D. Roxburgh, and L. Safran. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 287-329
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. Galen in Late Antique medical handbooks. (2019) in Brill's Companion to the Reception of Galen, eds. P. Bouras-Vallianatos and B. Zipser. Leiden: Brill, doi:10.1163/9789004394353_004
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. Galen in Byzantine Medical Literature, (2019), in Brill's Companion to the Reception of Galen, eds. P. Bouras-Vallianatos and B. Zipser. Leiden: Brill, 86-110. doi:10.1163/9789004394353_006
• Bouras-Vallianatos, Petros. Reading Galen in Byzantium: The fate of 'Therapeutics to Glaucon', (2018), in Greek Medical Literature and its Readers: From Hippocrates to Islam and Byzantium, eds. P. Bouras-Vallianatos and S. Xenophontos. London: Routledge, 180-229