The medicine of Aulus Cornelius Celsus (floruit first third of the first century AD) is not school reading and does not belong to any canon. Even medical historians find it difficult to read the work from beginning to end. But anyone studying the history of medicine in antiquity cannot avoid Celsus, even though the author presumably did not work professionally as a doctor himself. The eight books contain countless witty remarks and historical gems.

The present selection contains the proemia, the most important passages from the presentation of the theoretical and clinical subjects, the most original case descriptions and also the work's major contributions to terminology and ethics in medicine. Numerous original texts are presented for the discussion of the sources and reception in antiquity and the Middle Ages. The final section contains the fragments of the lost non-medical parts (agriculture, military affairs, rhetoric, philosophy) of the Opus Celsi.