The Lexicon Are Simultaneously Kept up to Date Is Most Impressive

Book Reviews the treatise impressive. However, they do not The second, of more general interest for the include instances where the image is found by reception of ancient Greek culture in the itself, and recourse to MacKinney is still medieval Islamic context, is the entry on the necessary. root 'lh, most commonly used to render terms Medieval vernacular medicine has for long relating to divinity and the godhead (pp. been the Cinderella of medical history. With 307-19). It is well known that the medieval the publication of such major studies as this Arabic translators (both Christian and Muslim) Sammelband, as varied and, at the same time, needed to provide "theologically correct" as coherent as the Ortolf material around which translations, but the ways in which this was it is organized, historians familiar only with the achieved are nevertheless of both interest and more exalted productions of Paris or Padua importance, especially in cases where an now have no excuse for not attending to these ancient Greek practice was either not more common but no less intellectual works. understood at all, or was interpreted in line with eastern Christian customs prevailing at the Vivian Nutton, Wellcome Institute time of the translation movement. These examples simply illustrate the broad relevance of the GALex. Its materials not only document lexicographical patterns and Gerhard Endress and Dimitri Gutas (eds), techniques crucial for our understanding of A Greek and Arabic lexicon (GALex): translation technique and the proper materials for a dictionary ofthe medieval comprehension of the Arabic translations translationsfrom Greek into Arabic, Fascicle themselves; they also provide an index to the 3, Handbook of Oriental Studies, vol. 11, vast array of issues and problems that arose as Leiden and New York, E J Brill, 1995, pp. 96, nascent Islamic culture came to terms with the Greek glossary, pp. 32, Nlg 80.00, $45.75 heritage of antiquity. That it facilitates research (90-04-10216-7). in the latter as well as the former, and in such important new ways, is a tribute both to the Endress and Gutas' monumental lexicon of significance of the work itself and to the the medieval Arabic translations from ancient scholarly and editorial skills of the editors. and late antique Greek texts continues apace with the publication of this third fascicle (cf. Lawrence I Conrad, Wellcome Institute Medical History, 1993, 37: 207-8; 1995, 39: 107-8). The editorial standard remains high, and the skill with which the various parts of Thierry Bardinet, Les Papyrus medicaux the lexicon are simultaneously kept up to date de l'Egypte pharaonique, Penser la Medecine, is most impressive. Paris, Fayard, 1995, pp. 591, FFr 180.00. Two entries in this fascicle seem to merit special attention. The first, of most immediate The situation regarding translations of the interest from the philological perspective, is ancient Egyptian medical papyri into English is the extended entry (pp. 249-76, the longest in very far from satisfactory. There appear to be this fascicle) on the important and ubiquitous no English translations of the Hearst, Chester exceptive Arabic particle illd. This carefully Beatty VI, Berlin, London papyri and the subdivided corpus of data clearly illustrates the Brooklyn papyrus on snake bite. We are various ways in which the term was employed fortunate in having James Breasted's to render Greek constructions; though the use translation of the Edwin Smith papyrus on of the Arabic exceptive to translate Greek wounds, though published in 1930. Griffith's phrases neither exceptive nor exclusive in 1898 translation of the Kahun gynaecological structure is well known, the extent to which papyrus into English was updated by Stevens this proves to have occurred is striking. in 1975. Iversen translated Carlsberg VIII into 251 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.219, on 24 Sep 2021 at 19:49:33, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300061135 Book Reviews English in 1939. The longest and most Egyptian words for drugs and pathological important papyrus is the Ebers, and this was conditions, and deliberately leaves many translated into English in an over-imaginative important words untranslated. In this respect he and unreliable form by Ebbell in 1937. is the very antithesis of Ebbell. Ghaliounghui's translation of 1987, although Bardinet has not hesitated to contradict his printed, was never placed on sale. predecessors. Ebbell is easy game, but he also The current gold standard of translation of disagrees in places with Jonckheere, Steuer, the medieval papyri is in the German Lefebvre and the German Grundriss team. He Grundriss series by the distinguished group of gives no translation for the important philologists, Hildegard von Dienes, Herman pathological factor wekhedew, for which he Grapow and Wolfhart Westendorf (1958), with sees no direct equivalent in contemporary a later version of the Edwin Smith by medical practice. He also disagrees with the Westendorf in 1966. Papyrus Chester Beatty VI hallowed view (of Ebbell, Lefebvre and was translated into French by Jonckheere in Jonckheere) that aaa was the haematuria of 1947. Sauneron published the full translation schistosomiasis. He does not even mention the of the Brooklyn papyrus on snake bite also in view that setet should mean "mucus", French in 1989. Parts of other papyri were "mucosities" or "shooting pains", as has been translated into French by Jonckheere in 1944 suggested. Chapter 4 considers these difficult and Lefebvre in 1956. words in relation to blood, and presents a It will be clear that there is a serious lack of scheme of pathology which is far removed up-to-date English translations of the medical from modern thought. papyri. The English reader is at a special Although many would support the reluctance disadvantage unless he has a good command of of Bardinet to attempt the translation of these German, but even the Grundriss is now hirty- difficult words, his unorthodox translation of eight years old. Over-dependence on Ebbell has some important and hitherto supposedly well been responsible for perpetuation of many attested words must await the views of unsubstantiated myths of ancient Egyptian philologists. The word ib, usually written simply medicine. Against this background the work of as the heart determinative, has always been Thierry Bardinet must inevitably assume great taken to mean "heart", albeit with the same importance, bringing the texts closer to the reader figurative overtones as in English (e.g., as in unfamiliar with the ancient Egyptian language. kind-hearted). Bardinet believes ib to mean most The author is a dental surgeon but clearly internal organs except the heart. He reads hedju very well versed in the hieroglyphs. The book as "garlic", whereas it has previously been taken is based on a doctoral thesis for the Ecole to mean "onions". The pustule determinative Pratique des Hautes Etudes, examined by with three plural strokes was for good reasons, distinguished Egyptologists. The first part of in some places, read by the Grundriss team as the book consists of discussions of key aspects "faeces" (hes). Bardinet always reads it as of Egyptian medicine including magic and the wekhedew, which would require major re- peculiarly Egyptian concept of pathological evaluation of certain important passages. One factors such as aaa, setet and wekhedew. The wonders why aat (swelling) should be translated second part comprises an analysis of the texts, as "poche", and what is the evidence for while the third part is a consecutive translation mendjer meaning "gall bladder"? into French of all the major ancient Egyptian Apart from such interpretations, with which medical Papyri. many will disagree, the book has two In spite of the author's medical background, disappointing features. First, the consecutive he repeatedly warns the reader of the dangers translations run without footnotes or discussion of making facile interpretations based on of controversial passages. This gives an current medical knowledge. He constantly impression of certainty which is difficult to avoids unsubstantiated interpretations of justify. Secondly, many key passages are 252 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.219, on 24 Sep 2021 at 19:49:33, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025727300061135 Book Reviews missing from the corpus and must be sought in Cook carefully chronicles Groenevelt's medical the first part of the book. This was sometimes education at Leiden and his subsequent move to laborious, and it would have been helpful to London. In one of the most fascinating sections have had an Index des textes medicaux of the book he observes the network of Dutch traduits, cites ou comment6s as in Lefebvre. physicians in the capital, cataloguing their Overall, however, the standard of translation patronage relations and mutual support systems. in this book is high, incorporating the advances He traces Groenevelt's career to its sad demise of the last few decades. It may well be more after a law suit brought by a disgruntled patient accessible to English readers than the (he won the suit but lost his reputation). Grundriss, and it is certainly an improvement As he narrates this story Cook subtly on Ebbell. It is recommended for the general discloses the struggles for authority and power medical reader and particularly those who have in seventeenth-century medical London. difficulty reading German. Groenevelt and his associates, of whom Thomas Sydenham was one, helped themselves J F Nunn, Northwood, Middlesex liberally to the language of experience and practice in their attempts to outmanoeuvre the conservative elements which ran the College. Harold J Cook, Trials ofan ordinary The forces of reaction, however, as Cook doctor: Joannes Groenevelt in seventeenth- shows so well, were no toothless diehards.

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