High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Cyranides (also Kyranides or Kiranides) is a compilation of Hermetic magico-medical works in Greek first put together in the 4th century. A Latin translation also exists. It has been described as a "farrago" and a texte vivant, owing to the complexities of its transmission: it has been abridged, rearranged, and supplemented. The resulting compilation covers the magical properties and practical uses of gemstones, plants, and animals, and is a virtual encyclopedia of amulets; it also contains material pertinent to the history of western alchemy, and to New Testament studies, particularly in illuminating meanings of words and magico-religious practices. As a medical text, the Cyranides was held in relatively low esteem even in antiquity and the Middle Ages because of its use of vernacular language and reliance on lore rather than Hippocratic or Galenic medical theory.