1842GreenhillGA

A Latin translation of Theophilus Protospatharios's treatise On the Construction of the Human Being [Θεοφιλος ο Πρωτοσπαθάριος. Περὶ τῆς τοῦ ανθρώπου κατασκευῆς] (ca. 976-1115?). The author writes about the normal anatomy of the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) and its connective function. For our commentary, see the link: 1842GreenhillGA [Rus]. See also 1581CrassoPI, 1724FabriciusJA, 2020ArkhipovSV_ProlyginaIV.

Quote.

[Grc]

Περὶ τῆς τοῦ ανθρώπου κατασκευῆς. Βιβλιον Ε. 13.

(original source: 1842GreenhillGA, p. 204)

[Lat]

De corporis humani fabrica. Liber quintus. Cap. XIII.

Dei erga homines amor [et sapientia] ex heminae fundo teretem nervum promisit, cartilaginosum vinculum femoris capiti insertum, adstringensque ne facile elabatur; inde ex heminae oris aliae copulae oriuntur, totum femoris caput in orbem constringentes, non teretes et solae, (qualis quae ex fundo porrigitur,) sed latae, valenterque heminae oras ad comraissurae praesidium ambientes. (original source: 1842GreenhillGA, p. 204)

Translation

[Eng]

On the Construction of the Human Being. Book V. 13.

For the sake of this, the benevolence and disposition of God grew from the bottom of the acetabulum a round sinew (νεῦρον), a cartilaginous ligament (σύνδεσμον χονδρώδη), growing into the head of the hipbone and holding it there to avoid dislocation. From the edge of the acetabulum begins the capsular ligament, which encircles the entire head of the femur. It is not round and singular like the one that originates from below, but rather wide, surrounding the acetabulum to protect the joint. (translation from Greek was done in collaboration with Prof. I.V. Prolygina; see also 2020ArkhipovSV_ProlyginaIV)

External links

Greenhill GA (Ed). Theophili Protospatharii De corporis humani fabrica. Oxonii: E typographeo academic, MDCCCXLII [1842]. [archive.org]

Arkhipov SV, Prolygina IV. Ancient Textual Sources on Ligamentum Teres: Context and Transmission. MLTJ. 2020;10(3)536-46. [mltj.online , researchgate.net]

Authors & Affiliations

Guillaume Alexander Greenhill (1814-1894) was an English physician, literary editor. [en.wikipedia.org]

Guillaume Alexander Greenhill
From a photograph by H.J. Cobbold (1900);
original in the wikimedia.org collection (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, no changes).

Theophilus Protospatharius (Θεοφιλος ο Πρωτοσπαθάριος) Byzantine physician, probably lived in the VII - X cent. [1849SmithW; 2011ФилатовКА; wikipedia.org]

Theophilus Protospatharius
Unknown author (1250, Oxford); original in the wikimedia.org collection
(CC0 – Public Domain, fragment)

Keywords

ligamentum capitis femoris, ligamentum teres, ligament of head of femur, history, anatomy, synonym, role, shape, Theophilus Protospatharius

NB! Fair practice / use: copied for the purposes of criticism, review, comment, research and private study in accordance with Copyright Laws of the US: 17 U.S.C. §107; Copyright Law of the EU: Dir. 2001/29/EC, art.5/3a,d; Copyright Law of the RU: ГК РФ ст.1274/1.1-2,7

BLOG CONTENT

ANCIENT MENTIONS

Comments

21cent.bcBaqetIII

Groups of wrestlers on the walls of tomb BH15, belonging to Baqet III – a contemporary of Pharaoh Mentuhotep II (frescoes, Beni Hasan, Egypt). These images depict wrestling scenes and the circumstances under which injuries to the hip joint — including the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) — might occur. The frescoes appear to have served as the basis for the description of wrestling found in the Book of Genesis: 25 And Ja cob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 26 And when he saw that he could not pre vail against him, he struck against the hollow of his thigh ; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was put out of joint, as he was wrestling with him. … 33 Therefore do the children of Israel not eat the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day; because he struck against the hollow of Jacob's thigh on the sinew that shrank. ( 1922LeeserI , Genesis (Bereshit) 32:25-26,33) More about the plot in our work: Nint...

MEDICAL RECORD. Title and contents

Book manuscript: Arkhipov S.V. Medical Record: The Contribution of a Middle Bronze Age Egyptian Physician to the Book of Genesis. Kyrö : Author’s Edition, 2026. – 312 pp. – 2 tables. – Bibliographical references: 856 entries. Google Books ID: GGKEY:5GXG1LS275N , play.google.com , books.google.com Title, Abstract and Contents CONTENT [i] Abstract [ii] Dedication [iii] Book Covers and Title [iv] Table of Contents [v] Application [i] ABSTRACT Before you is the final medical record compiled by the author over a professional career as an orthopaedic surgeon. This work outlines information regarding a patient who sustained a hip joint injury in the Middle Bronze Age. The source material is extracted from the Book of Genesis and cross-referenced with facts from history, archaeology, natural science, and medicine past and present. Along the way, it is demonstrated that the protograph was composed in Ancient Egypt during the Second Intermediate P...

20cent.bcAmenemhet

Groups of wrestlers on the walls of tomb BH2, belonging to Amenemhat (Ameni)—a contemporary of Pharaoh Senusret I (frescoes, Beni Hasan, Egypt). These images depict wrestling scenes and the circumstances under which injuries to the hip joint—including the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF)—might occur. The frescoes appear to have served as the basis for the description of wrestling found in the Book of Genesis : 25 And Ja cob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 26 And when he saw that he could not pre vail against him, he struck against the hollow of his thigh ; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was put out of joint, as he was wrestling with him. … 33 Therefore do the children of Israel not eat the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day; because he struck against the hollow of Jacob's thigh on the sinew that shrank. ( 1922LeeserI , Genesis (Bereshit) 32:25-26,33) More about the plot in our work...

Tweet of October 26, 2026

The new book about the first patient with a #ligamentum_teres injury. PDF: http://books.google.com/books/about?id=OcogEgAAQBAJ Manuscript: https://roundligament.blogspot.com/2026/10/medical-record-title-and-contents.html Tweet of October 26, 2026 #Bible #Genesis BLOG CONTENT TWITTER OR X

1893GriffithFL

Griffith F.L. (1893): A group of wrestlers on the wall of the tomb of Baqet III (fresco, late 20th century BCE, Egypt). A depiction of the circumstances surrounding a hip joint injury—possibly involving the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) – which served as the basis for the description of a wrestling match in the Book of Genesis: 25 And Ja cob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 26 And when he saw that he could not pre vail against him, he struck against the hollow of his thigh ; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was put out of joint, as he was wrestling with him. … 33 Therefore do the children of Israel not eat the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day; because he struck against the hollow of Jacob's thigh on the sinew that shrank. ( 1922LeeserI , Genesis (Bereshit) 32:25-26,33) More about the plot in our work: Ninth month, eleventh day ( 2024АрхиповСВ ) and Medical Record (2026Ar...

MEDICAL RECORD. Chapter 2

Book manuscript: Arkhipov S.V. Medical Record: The Contribution of a Middle Bronze Age Egyptian Physician to the Book of Genesis. Kyrö: Author’s Edition, 2026. – 312 pp. – 2 tables. – Bibliographical references: 856 entries. play.google.com , books.google.com Introduction Chapter 2 Chronology of the Medical Record CONTENT [i] Text [ii] Navigation [iii] Application [i] Text When reading the Book of Genesis , we learn that the first recorded patient with an injury to the ligament of the head of femur was a man named Ya'akov (Gen. 32:25, 33). In adapted usage, the name is rendered as Jacob. According to the narrative, he was born near the well of Beer-Lahai-Roi, between Kadesh and Bered in the Negev Desert, which is in the south of the "Canaanite" land (Gen. 16:14, 23:19, 24:62). As is clear from the text, the "Canaanite land" is the western part of the current State of Israel, excluding the vicinity of the Jordan River (Gen. 13:11–12). Jacob's father ...

NEWS 2026

New publications of our resource in 2026 The initial phase of collecting data on LCF, accumulated prior to the 20th century, is largely complete. Next, we plan to analyze and synthesize thematic information, adding data from the 20th and 21st centuries. The work will focus primarily on: prevention, diagnosis, arthroscopy, plastic surgery, and endoprosthetics. October 29 , 2026 22cent.bcBaqetI . Fresco. A depiction of the circumstances surrounding a hip joint injury. October 28 , 2026 17cent.Akrotiri . Fresco. A depiction of the circumstances surrounding a hip joint injury. 20cent.bcAmenemhet . Fresco. A depiction of the circumstances surrounding a hip joint injury. 20cent.bcKhety . Fresco. A depiction of the circumstances surrounding a hip joint injury. 21cent.bcBaqetIII . Fresco. A depiction of the circumstances surrounding a hip joint injury. October 26 , 2026 Tweet of October 26, 2026 . Book announcement 1893GriffithFL Fresco. A depi...

MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS ( Erroneous and folkloric beliefs, folk and traditional stories...) LCF in English Bibles The first written mention of the LCF in humans is found in the ancient Hebrew book – Bereshit (Genesis). In English translations of the Bible, LCF is denoted by various terms, often not explicitly referring to the «ligament». The Shortest Comments on Genesis, Chap. XXXII-XXXIII In the selected excerpt, the symptoms, mechanism, and differential diagnostic test for the injury to LCF are provided, along with details about the circumstances, time, and place of the biblical trauma. 1609-1583bcProtoBereshit Hypothesis: in the work of fiction, an unknown physician-encyclopedist for the first time pointed out damage to the LCF as a cause of gait disturbance. 922-722bcElohist A variant of the oldest description of damage to the LCF and the cause of lameness in Hebrew, dating from 922-722 BC. 8cent.bcHomer The...

1849QuainJ

Fragments from the book by Jones Quain (fifth edition): Elements of anatomy Vol. 1 (1849), the first edition was published in 1828. The author writes about the anatomy of the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF) and mentions synonyms. Quote p. 278 THE HIP-JOINT. This is a true ball-and-socket joint, in which the globular head of the femur is received into the acetabulum or cotyloid cavity. The articulating surfaces are covered by cartilage in the greater part of their extent. It is deficient, however, at the bottom of the cavity, and also a little beneath the central point of the head of the femur; the latter marking the insertion of the round ligament, the former a shallow fossa for the lodgment of the structure which has been called the synovial gland. The connecting means in this articulation are three ligaments, viz. a capsular, cotyloid, and interarticular ligament, together with a synovial membrane. Fig. 147. Ligaments of the pelvis and hip-joint. The view is t...

Human Children. Retelling of Chapter 5

Short retelling of chapter 5 of the essay: Arkhipov S.V. Human Children: The Origins of Biblical Legends from a Physician's Perspective. Joensuu: Author's Edition, 2025. [In Russian] Chapter 5. ADAM AND EVE The Book of Genesis narrates the story of a tribe founded by Adam and Eve, described as the "mother of all living." From a genetic perspective, they are depicted as siblings, with an age difference of 18–25 years. According to the biblical epic, they formed humanity’s first family, sustaining themselves on pre-existing fruits and seeds. Their initial home was the "garden in Eden," located "in the east" relative to the narrator. The text identifies geographic markers for Eden’s location: lands like "Asshur," "Cush," and "Havilah," and rivers named "Pishon," "Gihon," "Hiddekel," and "Phrath." The narrator also notes the region’s economic value, mentioning "gold," ...

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