DOCSLIB.ORG

The Greek-Latin Translations

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Greek-Latin Translations chapter 19 Translating Galen in the Medieval West: the Greek-Latin Translations Anna Maria Urso 1 Medieval Translations of Galen: an Overview 1.1 From Late Antiquity to the Twelfth-Century Renewal As Owsei Temkin writes in a study that remains a milestone in the story of Galen criticism, ‘the centrifugal forces that tended to separate the Roman Empire into Latin West and Greek East gave Galen to the East’, in particular to Alexandria.1 Here – between the era of Oribasios (later third/early fourth cen- tury) and the Arab conquest of the city (642), in a cultural milieu dominated by Neoplatonism impregnated with Aristotelian logic and natural philosophy – a selection of Galen’s works was for the first time used as the foundation for a medical training curriculum.2 This was the first step in the cultural process of acquisition, organisation, and interpretation of the thinking of the master from Pergamum, known as Galenism, which would be further developed in Syria and the Islamic world, but would only take root in the West at the height of the Middle Ages. The first traces are to be found in Ostrogoth and/or Byzantine Ravenna, where evidence of interest in Galen appears in a corpus of Latin com- mentaries whose selection of texts seems to reproduce the foundation course in Alexandria.3 Apart from these commentaries, however, and a fully preserved translation of the On Sects for Beginners, the West in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages did not leave evidence of interest in the theories of Galen. We can merely suppose that there were translations of the Art of Medicine and On the Pulse for Beginners, of which commentaries survive,4 while in the other surviving translation of the Therapeutics to Glaucon the Greek text seems 1 Temkin (1973: 59). 2 On the Galenic syllabus as it existed in sixth-century Alexandria (later called ‘The Sixteen Books’, but consisting in fact of twenty-four treatises, some considered as parts of larger works) see Garofalo (2003: 203–8). 3 An annotated bibliography on Alexandrian Galenism and its Western spread during the sixth and seventh centuries, from the basic Augusto Beccaria’s researches to 2000, is to be found in Palmieri (2002). 4 Fischer (2012: 694–5). © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004394353_021 360 Urso to have been significantly reshaped.5 Rather, translations of pseudo-Galenic works have been preserved. In their highly practical approach, they are com- parable to most medical texts prior to the Schola Medica Salernitana, mainly concerned with remedies and treatment.6 In order for Galen’s thinking, in both its practical and theoretical aspects, to take hold in the West, and there to ‘constitute the basis of formal medicine … at least until the seventeenth-century’ Scientific Revolution,7 a cultural renewal was needed, which brought with it the awareness of shortcomings in the scien- tific education of the time and the need for new texts to fill the gap. The trans- lation movement that brought Galen’s theories to the West, along with those of other fields of science (or pseudo-science) such as philosophy, mathematics, and astrology, was how the need for cultural tools was satisfied in a Middle Ages above all dominated by Latin. This movement, which proceeded uninter- rupted albeit in isolated and circumscribed episodes, first emerged in central- southern Italy in the eleventh century, gained energy in the twelfth century, and then continued until the threshold of the Renaissance.8 As far as medicine is concerned, the movement is commonly deemed to have been started by two forerunners linked in different ways to Montecassino: Alfano, a monk at the abbey and later Archbishop of Salerno, and Constantine the African (d. before 1098/99), a Carthaginian monk who had settled in the Benedictine monastery and whose life is surrounded by legend.9 The former translated directly from the Greek Latinorum cogente penuria the On Human Nature of Nemesios of Emesa,10 a patristic work that assimilates philosophi- cal doctrine and elements of Galenic physiology. The latter provided the West with its first corpus of medical texts, translating both works originally written 5 Fischer (2012), however, argues that in a number of cases the Latin translation may pre- serve the most authentic version. As Fischer (2013: 676) stresses, the Therapeutics to Glaucon was ‘the most important Galenic work for the Middle ages … at least until the second half of 12th century’. 6 On the Latin translations of Galenic and pseudo-Galenic works during the early Middle Ages see the updated overview by Fischer (2013). A summary of the medical production in its whole before Salerno is to be found in Jacquart (1990: 251–5). 7 Nutton (2008: 355). 8 A synthetic but complete picture of this translation movement in its whole is to be found in Chiesa (1995). For an exhaustive and updated bibliography on the medieval Galenic translations, particularly the Greek-Latin ones, from the relevant pioneeristic contri- bution by Haskins up to now, I refer to the Fiche thématique of my disciple Alessandra Scimone (2017). 9 On Constantine the African as a translator, see Long (Chapter 18) in this volume. 10 Alfanus, Premnon, pr., ed. Burkhard (1917) 2.23–4. As d’Alverny (1982: 426) argues, the reference to the penury of Latins is ‘a topical formula of many translators’..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Landmarks in the History of Neurosurgery
    PART 1 General Overview 1 Landmarks in the History of Neurosurgery JAMES TAIT GOODRICH “If a physician makes a wound and cures a freeman, he shall receive ten running complex 21st-century stereotaxic frameless guided pieces of silver, but only five if the patient is the son of a plebeian or two systems. if he is a slave. However it is decreed that if a physician treats a patient In many museum and academic collections around the with a metal knife for a severe wound and has caused the man to die—his world are examples of the earliest form of neurosurgery—skull hands shall be cut off.” trephination.1–4 A number of arguments and interpretations —Code of Hammurabi (1792–50 BC) have been advanced by scholars as to the origin and surgical reasons for this early operation—to date no satisfactory answers have been found. Issues of religion, treatment of head injuries, release of demons, and treatment of headaches have all been offered. Unfortunately, no adequate archaeological materials n the history of neurosurgery there have occurred a number have surfaced to provide us with an answer. In reviewing some of events and landmarks, and these will be the focus of this of the early skulls, the skills of these early surgeons were quite chapter. In understanding the history of our profession, remarkable. Many of the trephined skulls show evidence of Iperhaps the neurosurgeon will be able explore more carefully healing, proving that these early patients survived the surgery. the subsequent chapters in this volume to avoid having his or Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • Fragm-Lat-4.Pdf
    Kendrick 1 With us ther was a DOCTOUR OF PHISIK ... Wel knew he the olde Esculapius, And Deyscorides, and eek Rufus, Old Ypocras, Haly, and Galyen, Sarapion, Razis, and Avycen, Averrois, Damascien, and Consantyn … Of his diete mesurable was he, For it was of no superfluitee, But of greet norissyng and digestible. — Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (GP 411-37, my italics) Foreword This project identifies, contextualizes, and transcribes a hitherto unidentified thirteenth-century manuscript fragment housed at the University of Victoria. It arose out of coursework for a manuscript studies class offered through the Department of English, and it is focused primarily on codicology, the study of the manuscript as a material object, as well as historical and cultural contexts. Although I have a very limited knowledge of Latin, the language of the fragment in question, this project entails a full transcription of Latin text and a collation with other Latin manuscripts. Abbreviations were expanded in accordance with comparison manuscripts and an early print edition of the text, as well as through consultation with Adriano Capelli’s Dizionario di Abbreviature Latine ed Italiani. Training and consultation with my supervisor, Dr. Adrienne Williams Boyarin, was also crucial. The scope of this project highlights how much can be learned about a text by studying its material form. Introduction Victoria, McPherson Library, Fragm.Lat.4 is a single-leaf fragment with text concerning various fruits and vegetables. It was acquired for the University of Victoria in 2006 by book historian Kendrick 2 Erik Kwakkel (University of Leiden).1 At that time, Kwakkel determined that it was written in France ca.
    [Show full text]
  • John Arderne, Surgeon of Early England
    JOHN ARDERNE, SURGEON OF EARLY ENGLAND By ALFRED BROWN, M.D. OMAHA T has been stated often and truly that through his religious zeal made an error man is moulded principally by two which was to cost him much of his domina- factors, heredity and environment. tion. The pilgrims, in their journey across Which of these plays the greater role is Europe and the Mediterranean to the Holy still, and probably always will be, a matter Land had been mistreated by the Moslem Ifor argument. In whatever way one until finally these men, searching for con- decides the question, of one thing there secration at Christ’s Sepulchre, began to can be no doubt that in order to evaluate travel in bands under arms. This was taken properly the accomplishments of any man as an opportunity by the cleric to foster an and place him, as best we may in his offensive spirit on the part of Chivalry. fitting niche in history, these two elements, Chivalry had already taught the laity that when possible, should be taken into con- it was proper to defend by force what was sideration. In the case of the first of these, right but as time went on, the idea urged heredity, the feat is at times difficult of by the monk grew, to take the offensive accomplishment, especially when the study and capture from the Moslem the Sepulchre is of a man of the middle ages such as John of Christ and restore it to its proper guard- Arderne who lived during the major part of ian the Christian Church.
    [Show full text]
  • Roman North Africa North Roman
    EASTERNSOCIAL WORLDS EUROPEAN OF LATE SCREEN ANTIQUITY CULTURES AND THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES Cilliers Roman North Africa Louise Cilliers Roman North Africa Environment, Society and Medical Contribution Roman North Africa Social Worlds of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages The Late Antiquity experienced profound cultural and social change: the political disintegration of the Roman Empire in the West, contrasted by its continuation and transformation in the East; the arrival of ‘barbarian’ newcomers and the establishment of new polities; a renewed militarization and Christianization of society; as well as crucial changes in Judaism and Christianity, together with the emergence of Islam and the end of classical paganism. This series focuses on the resulting diversity within Late Antique society, emphasizing cultural connections and exchanges; questions of unity and inclusion, alienation and conflict; and the processes of syncretism and change. By drawing upon a number of disciplines and approaches, this series sheds light on the cultural and social history of Late Antiquity and the greater Mediterranean world. Series Editor Carlos Machado, University of St. Andrews Editorial Board Lisa Bailey, University of Auckland Maijastina Kahlos, University of Helsinki Volker Menze, Central European University Ellen Swift, University of Kent Enrico Zanini, University of Siena Roman North Africa Environment, Society and Medical Contribution Louise Cilliers Amsterdam University Press Cover illustration: Ruins of the Antonine Baths in Carthage © Dreamstime Stockphoto’s Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Typesetting: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 94 6298 990 0 e-isbn 978 90 4854 268 0 doi 10.5117/9789462989900 nur 684 © Louise Cilliers / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2019 All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • Scholastic Manuscripts of the Physician Peter of Spain (13Th Century)
    Acta Scientiarum http://periodicos.uem.br/ojs/acta ISSN on-line: 2178-5201 Doi: 10.4025/actascieduc.v41i1.48131 HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION Scholastic manuscripts of the physician Peter of Spain (13th century) Dulce Oliveira Amarante dos Santos Programa de Pós-Graduação em História, Faculdade de História, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Av. Esperança, s/n, Campus Samambaia, 74690-900, Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil. E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT. This paper discusses the education of physicians in the Schools of Medicine of the urban Studia Generalia in the 13th century. The Education methodology was the same for all four fields of knowledge: Arts, Theology, Roman and Canon Law and Medicine. It included reading by the scholars and scholastic commentaries and questions elaborated by the masters, The manuscript sources and print editions of the writings of the Portuguese physician Petrus Hispanus (?1220-1277), when he taught at Siena (1246-1252) are in the National Libraries of France and Spain and the Vatican Apostolic Library. Keywords: Studia Generalia; Articella, Medicine, physician; Paris; Siena. Manuscritos escolásticos do físico Pedro Hispano (século XIII) RESUMO. O presente texto busca problematizar a educação e a formação dos físicos nas faculdades de Medicina dos Estudos Gerais urbanos, no século XIII. A metodologia de ensino era comum à todas as quatro áreas do conhecimento universitário, Artes, Teologia, Direito Canônico e Romano e Medicina. Consistia em leitura pelos escolares e comentários e questões pelos mestres acerca dos textos das autoridades antigas e medievais. Em três bibliotecas nacionais europeias encontram-se as fontes manuscritas e edições impressas dos comentários e questões escritos pelo físico português Pedro Hispano (?1220-1277), quando atuou como mestre na Faculdade de Medicina de Siena entre 1246-1252.
    [Show full text]
  • Art and Logic of Ramon Llull
    The Art and Logic of Ramon Llull BOONER_f1_i-xx.indd i 10/2/2007 1:00:20 PM Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters Begründet von Josef Koch Weitergeführt von Paul Wilpert, Albert Zimmermann und Jan A. Aertsen Herausgegeben von Andreas Speer In Zusammenarbeit mit Tzotcho Boiadjiev, Kent Emery, Jr. und Wouter Goris BAND XCV BOONER_f1_i-xx.indd ii 10/2/2007 1:00:21 PM The Art and Logic of Ramon Llull A User’s Guide by Anthony Bonner LEIDEN • BOSTON 2007 BOONER_f1_i-xx.indd iii 10/2/2007 1:00:21 PM This book is printed on acid-free paper. A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISSN 0169–8028 ISBN 978 90 04 16325 6 © Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands BOONER_f1_i-xx.indd iv 10/5/2007 10:59:30 AM To the memory of Robert Pring-Mill and David Rosenblatt BOONER_f1_i-xx.indd v 10/2/2007 1:00:21 PM BOONER_f1_i-xx.indd vi 10/2/2007 1:00:22 PM CONTENTS Preface ........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Production and Reception of Medical
    BODY AND SOUL: THE PRODUCTION AND RECEPTION OF MEDICAL TRANSLATIONS FROM ARABIC IN THE LONG TWELFTH CENTURY A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Brian Long John Van Engen, Director Graduate Program in Medieval Studies Notre Dame, Indiana December 2015 © Copyright by Brian Long 2015 All rights reserved BODY AND SOUL: THE PRODUCTION AND RECEPTION OF MEDICAL TRANSLATIONS FROM ARABIC IN THE LONG TWELFTH CENTURY Abstract by Brian Long In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, medicine in the Mediterranean was characterized by intellectual ferment and rapid change, characteristics quickened by substantial cross-cultural influences. In the Latin West, for example, translations produced in the long twelfth century (from the late eleventh to the early thirteenth centuries) marked a major shift in medicine’s development into a learned profession and also reshaped understandings of the human body. This dissertation explores both the cross-cultural circulation of medicine in the medieval Mediterranean and its place in Byzantium and the Latin West. First, it examines medicine in eleventh- and twelfth-century Byzantium, both because of its considerable vitality and because Byzantium’s broad influence and prestige make it an essential context for the Latin West. Rather than characterized by newly ascendant medical practitioners, as has been suggested, a divide appears to have existed between the enthusiasm for Brian Long medicine among learned readers and the humbler, often empirical world of Byzantine medical practitioners. Second, the translations of Constantine the African are examined, including both the contexts of their production and their connections to the other worlds of Mediterranean medicine.
    [Show full text]
  • Medicina Antiqua 2: General Content of the Library
    Medicina Antiqua 2. Content of the library Alain Touwaide - Emanuela Appetiti Los Angeles, 2021 Alain Touwaide and Emanuela Appetiti [email protected] and [email protected] + 1 626 348 3375 Cover illustration: Carl Spitzweg (1508-1585), Der Bücherwurm (The Bookworm), ca. 1850 The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=159097 General Content of the Library Reference History of Health Sciences Primary Sources Medicine Pharmacy Science and Medicine Health Care Literature Anthropology/Ethnosciences/Non-Western Auxiliary Sciences Medicines Philology Anthropology Papyrology Ethnobiology Codicology and Palaeography Ethnobotany History of the Book Ethnomedicine Textual History Ethnopharmacology Ecdotic Non-Western Medicines History Human Sciences Periods/Regions Cultural History History of Life Intellectual History History of Belief Systems History of Science History of Religions Exact Sciences Archeology and Art History Sciences of Matter Life Sciences Archaeology Sciences of Environment Arts Technique and Engineering Graphic Arts/Visual Culture Museums and Sites Modern Art Conceptual Architecture of the Library and the Research Table of Contents Reference 5 Primary Sources 7 History of Medicine 9 History of Sciences 13 Literature 15 Auxiliary Sciences 19 Philology 19 Papyrology 21 Codicology and Palaeography 23 Catalogues of manuscripts 25 Book illustration 27 History of the
    [Show full text]
  • Al-Qayrawan (Tunisia)
    Al-Qayrawan (Tunisia) IMPORTANT NOTICE: Author: Salah Zaimeche PhD Chief Editor: Lamaan Ball All rights, including copyright, in the content of this document are owned or controlled for these purposes by FSTC Limited. In accessing these web pages, you agree that you may only download the content for your own personal non-commercial Release Date: September 2004 use. You are not permitted to copy, broadcast, download, store (in any medium), transmit, show or play in public, adapt or Publication ID: 4067 change in any way the content of this document for any other purpose whatsoever without the prior written permission of FSTC Limited. Copyright: © FSTC Limited, 2003 2004 Material may not be copied, reproduced, republished, downloaded, posted, broadcast or transmitted in any way except for your own personal non-commercial home use. Any other use requires the prior written permission of FSTC Limited. You agree not to adapt, alter or create a derivative work from any of the material contained in this document or use it for any other purpose other than for your personal non-commercial use. FSTC Limited has taken all reasonable care to ensure that pages published in this document and on the MuslimHeritage.com Web Site were accurate at the time of publication or last modification. Web sites are by nature experimental or constantly changing. Hence information published may be for test purposes only, may be out of date, or may be the personal opinion of the author. Readers should always verify information with the appropriate references before relying on it. The views of the authors of this document do not necessarily reflect the views of FSTC Limited.
    [Show full text]
  • Ibn Al-Jazzār on Fevers
    IBN AL-JAZZAR ON FEVERS This volume is part of a highly important work-Ziid al-musiifir wa-qiit al-/:ziit;lir-compiled by the Arab physician Ibn al-Jazzar of Qayrawan in the tenth century. Consisting of seven books that provide concise descriptions and discussions of different diseases and their treatment, from head to toe, it was one of the most influential medical handbooks in medieval Europe. Ibn al-Jazzar's Ziid al-musiifir not only offered a traditional pathology, but also introduced new objects of reflection, such as mental pathology, to the Western physician for the first time. It contains many valuable quotations from the works of ancient and medieval physicians and philosophers such as Aristotle, Rufus, Galen, Polemon, Paul of Aegina and Qustft ibn Liiqa which, in several cases, are only preserved in this work. The section from Ziid al-musiifir presented here is the seventh book, consisting of six chapters dealing with all the different simple kinds of fever known in his time. It is the first time one of the medical works of the Arab physicians dealing with fevers has been published in a critical edition and translation. This important work represents a great advance in the understanding of Islamic and Western medicine. THE AUTHOR Gerrit Bos is an expert on the history of medieval medicine, particularly as found in Hebrew and Arabic texts. He is the author of Ibn al-Jazziir on Forgetfulness and its Treatment, Ibn al-Jazziir on Sexual Diseases and their Treatment and, with Charles Burnett, of a work on medieval weather forecasting, with reference to the work of al-Kindi.
    [Show full text]
  • Trotula, Women's Problems, and the Professionalization of Medicine in the Middle Ages
    DIVISION OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91125 TROTULA, WONEN'S PROBLENS, AND THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES John F. Benton HUMANITIES WORKING PAPER 98 © John F. B@nton December 1983 Revised November ABSTRACT The professionalization of medicine in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries led to an exclusion of women practitioners from the best paid and most respected medical positions. Male doctors controlled the teaching and theory of women's medicine, and their gynecological literature incorporated male experience, understanding and learning. The treatises attributed to Trotula, which survive in nearly 100 manuscripts, were the most popular texts used by academic physicians in the later Middle Ages. Although Georg Kraut's Strassburg edition of 1544 treats the treatises of "Trotula" as a single, unified work, three separate texts circulated in the Middle Ages, and on stylistic and other grounds it is likely that each was written by a different author. Reasonably solid evidence demonstrates the existence of a woman physician at Salerno named Trota or Trotula, but she was not a magistra (as is often asserted), and it seems that she did not write even one of the three texts attributed to her. Instead, she produced a Practica from which extracts appear in a Practica secundum Trotam, which survives as a single mansucript in Madrid, and in De aegritudinum curatione in the Wrociaw (Breslau) ~ Salernitanus. This paper is to be published by the Bulletin of the History of Medicine in 1985. TROTULA~ WOMEN'S PROBLEMS~ AND THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF MEDICINE IN THE MIDDLE AGES John F.
    [Show full text]
  • Ibn Al-Jazzar on Women's Diseases and Their Treatment
    Medical Histonr, 1993, 37: 296-312. IBN AL-JAZZAR ON WOMEN'S DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT by GERRIT BOS * Abu Ja'far Ahmad b. Abi Khalid Ibn al-Jazzar, born in Qayrawan, the medieval capital of Tunisia, hailed from a family of physicians.' His father IbrThim was a doctor, as was his paternal uncle Abu Bakr. He studied with the famous Jewish philosopher and physician Ishaq b. Sulayman al-Isra'ili (c. 243/855-343/955),2 who had been a student of Ishaq ibn 'Imran (d. 296/908),3 and who at the age offifty emigrated from Egypt to Qayrawan, where he was appointed court physician by the Fatimid caliph 'Ubaydallah al-Mahdi. Ibn al-Jazzar led an austere life, devoting himself to the study and practice of medicine. Every summer he used to travel to al-Munastir on the Mediterranean coast where he would stay in a famous Sufi-cell. Unlike many of his colleagues, he did not look for a position, at one of the princely courts. As part of his medical practice he received and examined his patients during the hours of consultation, and analysed their urine. His servant Rashiq would then administer to them the required medicines, free of charge. When he died in 980, well over eighty years old, he left 24,000 dindrs and twenty-five qintars4 weight ofbooks on medicine and other subjects. * Gerrit Bos, Ph.D., Research Fellow at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 183 Euston Road, London NW I 2BE. 'On his biographical data and works see Ibn Juljul, Tabaqait al-atibba' wa al-hukama', ed.
    [Show full text]