The Medicina Plinii was an anonymous compilation of remedies dating to the early 4th century CE ."The excerptor, saying that he speaks from experience, offers the work as a compact resource for travelers in dealing with hucksters who sell worthless drugs at exorbitant prices or with know-nothings only interested in profit.^[1] The material is presented in three books in the conventional order a capite ad calcem (“from head to toe,” in the equivalent English expression), the first dealing with treatments pertaining to the head and throat, the second the torso and lower extremities, and the third systemic ailments, skin diseases, and poisons. The book contains more than 1,100 pharmacological recipes, the vast majority of them from the Historia naturalis of Pliny the Elder. Other sources include Celsus, Scribonius Largus, and Dioscorides.^[3] Materials may be botanical, animal-derived, or metallic; processes include decoction, emulsification, calcination and fermentation. Preparations may be applied topically, or consumed. Magic, perhaps to be compared with faith healing,^[7] was a regular feature of the manuals. Most of the recipes contain a limited number of ingredients, and in contrast to more expansive and thorough collections such as the De medicamentis liber of Marcellus Empiricus, precise measurements in drachmae, denarii or other units are specified for only a few formulations. Perhaps because Pliny's name was attached to it, the book enjoyed great popularity and influence. It was frequently copied during the Middle Ages, and was often used as a handbook in monastic infirmaries" (Wikipedia article on Medicina Plinii, quoted with a few minor changes, 1-2017).

The standard version of the text is Plinii secundi iunioris qui feruntur de medicina libri tres. Corpus Medicorum Latinorum 3 (Berlin, 1964) edited by Alf Önnerfors. A digital version of this text is available from Biblioteca digitale di testi latini tardoanchi at this link.