The word “REPERTORY” originates from the Latin word “repertoir,” which means any store or stock, (e.g. of information), that can be drawn upon.
“Repertorium,” in French and Latin, means a catalogue or storehouse.
Repertoire means a collection or an inventory of capabilities (e. g. songs, plays, music. etc.).
In Homeopathy the word “repertory” refers to books which are compiled indexes of the Homeopathic and Herbal Materia Medicas.
J. T. Kent said, “It has been built from all sources, and is a compilation of all the useful symptoms recorded in the fundamental works of our Materia Medica, as well as from the notes of our pioneers”
There have been more than 110 different repertories published as part of homeopathic literature during the last 170 years.
The first repertory was created by Samuel Hahnemann which he called a “Symptom Dictionary.”
Later, Jahr and Boenninghausen compiled their indexes to the homeopathic materia medica.
In modern terms, the repertory represents the clinical and research database for the practice of homeopathic medicine.
