 A "consilium" was a doctor's written text in response to a particular case, where the malady had been determined; in the "consilium" the medical doctor identified the disease and prescribed the appropriate treatment.The accumulation of "consilia" circulated in manuscript began, for the first time in Europe, to lay down a "corpus" of medical practice, case-by-case.Medieval medical writings had tended towards theory rather than praxis, which was denigrated as "ars mechanica", mere technician's work unsuited to the higher intellect.