Massage
One of the greatest Persian medics was Avicenna, also known as Ibn Sina, who lived from 980AD to 1037AD. His works included a comprehensive collection and systematisation of the fragmentary and unorganised Greco-Roman medical literature that had been translated Arabic by that time, augmented by notes from his own experiences. One of his books, "Al-Qānūn fī aṭ-Ṭibb" (The Canon of Medicine) has been called the most famous single book in the history of medicine in both East and West. Avicenna excelled in the logical assessment of conditions and comparison of symptoms and took special note of analgesics and their proper use as well as other methods of relieving pain, including massage.
Candidus of Fulda
The preserved "Life" of Abbot Aegil of Fulda (died 822) in prose and verse and the lost "Life" of Abbot Baugolf of Fulda (d. 802) were both written by Bruun Candidus of Fulda.
The "Life" of Abbot Eigil ("Vita Aegili"), written around 840, is the first known illustrated biography.
The "Vita Aegili" is an "opus geminatum" or "twinned work," that is, a work consisting of a pair of texts, one in prose and one in verse. Candidus says that the Abbot of Fulda, Raban Maur, instructed him to compose the life.
The "Vita Aegili" is an outstanding specimen of biography from the Carolingian Renaissance and an important source for the monastic reform of Benedict of Aniane. Candidus describes the conflict between Eigil's predecessor Ratgar (whom Candidus depicts as the unicorn that attacks the shepherd in Psalm 21) and the monastic community, which led to his deposition by Louis the Pious in 817, and also provides information about the discussions concerning the election of Ratgar's successor. He also describes two churches built at Fulda: first St. Salvator, the so-called Ratger-basilica, completed and augmented with two crypts by the monk Rachulf and dedicated 1. November 819, and second, St. Michael erected by Rabanus Maurus and dedicated 15. January 822. Candidus explains that its architecture—a centralized building with eight columns in the nave, one central column in the crypt and one single keystone in the vault—has a spiritual meaning, representing Christ and his ecclesia. Candidus also quotes the "tituli" (inscriptions) that Rabanus composed for the altars of both churches, and Eigil's two epitaphs, written by Eigil himself and by Rabanus. Candidus also recounts the dedication ceremony of St. Salvator and the translation of the relics of St. Boniface from his tomb in the centre of the church to his new crypt in the western apse. The hymns"Te deum" and "Gloria in excelsis", which were sung during the ceremony, are translated into verse.
The source for the Vita's lost illustration to this hymns may have been the aforementioned apse picture, which Candidus claims he executed, and which is probably reflected in three sacramentary manuscripts of the Ottonian age (Göttingen, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek 2° Ms. theol. 231 Cim., fol. 111r; Udine, Archivio Capitolare, Cod. 1, f. 66v; Bamberg State Library, Msc.Lit.1, fol. 165v).