Theiss P, Grüsser O J
Department of Physiology, Freie University, Berlin, Germany.
Doc Ophthalmol. 1994;86(2):123-51. doi: 10.1007/BF01203558.
Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus, ca. 1197-1280) descended from a nobleman's family in Upper Suebia and studied natural philosophy and theology at the University of Padova, where he joined the Dominican order. Confronted with Aristotelian thought mainly in its Arabic modification (Avicenna, Al-Farabi, Averroes, Alhazen, Costa ben Luca and others) from his days in Padova, he elaborated in several books on the principles of natural philosophy, biology, brain and sense functions and psychology in addition to his theological and exegetic works. His observations and concepts on vision are discussed in detail. It is pointed out that Albert discovered some phenomena of vision not before known such as vestibular nystagmus and rod monochromacy, i.e. total colour blindness accompanied by photophobia. Based on clinical observations Albert also postulated a decussation of the optic nerve fibres at the optic chiasm. Albert's concept of higher order cognitive function is discussed and some of his explanations of dreams and neuropsychiatric disease on the basis of his cognitive model are mentioned. Albert's thoughts on vision and other sense perceptions, higher brain functions and cognition are considered as progressive elaborations of Galenic concepts as adapted by some Patristic theologians and the Arabic natural scientists and philosophers of the 9th-11th century.
大阿尔伯特（阿尔伯特·马格努斯，约1197年 - 1280年）出身于上施瓦本的一个贵族家庭，在帕多瓦大学学习自然哲学和神学，并在那里加入了多明我会。从在帕多瓦时期起，他主要接触到的是经过阿拉伯人修正的亚里士多德思想（阿维森纳、法拉比、阿威罗伊、海什木、科斯塔·本·卢卡等人），除了他的神学和注释作品外，他还在几本著作中阐述了自然哲学、生物学、大脑与感官功能以及心理学的原理。文中详细讨论了他关于视觉的观察和概念。需要指出的是，阿尔伯特发现了一些此前不为人知的视觉现象，如前庭性眼球震颤和视杆单色性，即伴有畏光症状的全色盲。基于临床观察，阿尔伯特还推测了视神经纤维在视交叉处的交叉。文中讨论了阿尔伯特关于高阶认知功能的概念，并提及了他基于认知模型对梦和神经精神疾病的一些解释。阿尔伯特关于视觉和其他感官知觉、高级脑功能和认知的思想，被认为是对一些教父神学家以及9至11世纪阿拉伯自然科学家和哲学家所采用的盖伦概念的进一步阐述。
