LAUSR

391 A This ubiquitous incantation remains a staple of stage magicians, children’s stories, and purveyors of pseudoscience. The exact origin of the term engenders debate, and pundits have suggested various ancient Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin terms as the source. What is known is that its first appearance in print is found in the surviving fragments of the third century CE book Liber Medicinalis (sometimes known as De Medicina Praecepta Saluberrima) written by Quintus Serenus Sammonicus. Though Serenus was the physician to the Roman Emperor Caracalla and considered “the learned man of his age,” few details of his life are known.1 Following the practice of his time, Serenus composed his teachings as didactic poetry. The surviving fragment of Liber Medicinalis includes popular treatments, remedies, and antidotes written in verse. Among those remedies, Serenus proposed a magical procedure based on the wizardly word Abracadabra for treating “semitertian” fever, known today as malaria. That malady devastated ancient Rome and was sometimes also called “rage of the Dog Star” as the ascendance of Sirius presaged the oppressive heat and humidity thought to cause fever and illness. Some wealthy Romans sought to escape this scourge by moving to villas they had built in the hills away from the “bad air” (malum aeris in Latin) emanating from the marshes and wetlands surrounding Rome. With a bit of alchemical panache, Serenus offered another approach documented in chapter 51 of the Liber Medicinalis: