chapter 3 Galen’s Legacy in Alexandrian Texts Written in Greek, , and

Ivan Garofalo

From the end of the fifth and throughout the sixth century,1 a medical school with a philosophical framework was active in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.2 A selection was made from the available works of Galen to form a clearly de- fined curriculum for the students, divided into various courses.3 In the process of selection, Galenic works were commented on, summarised, and reduced to schemata and synopses. Subsequent decades saw a number of new studies and editions of texts connected to this tradition. This rich legacy shaped a substan- tial part of the transmission and reception of Galenic thought. The Alexandrian canon of Galenic works consists of sixteen single works or groups of works. Many Alexandrian physicians had already written com- mentaries on these works from as early as the fifth century.4 The clearest

1 The floruit of Gesios, the earliest commentator, is from around the beginning of the sixth century. John of Alexandria and Stephen are probably a generation or two later than Gesios, whom they quote. All translations into English are my own unless otherwise stated. 2 A useful presentation of the topic of this chapter is in Palmieri (2002). For textual criticism concerning the Alexandrian production, see Garofalo (2003a). For a general survey, see Duffy (1984). On late antique Alexandria, see Harris and Ruffini (2004); Pormann (2010: 419–21); Roueché (1991). For archaeological evidence, see Majcherek (2008). The professors of medi- cine who taught in Alexandria were called iatrosophistae; see Baldwin (1984). They were also practising physicians. This is attested for Gesios; see Overwien (2018). 3 The Alexandrians probably knew all the works of Galen that survived the transmission from papyrus roll to parchment codex. The commentators quote a number of works not in- cluded in the canon: Stephen does not quote additional canon works in his Commentary on Galen’s ‘Therapeutics to Glaucon’, but in the Commentary on Hippocrates’ ‘Aphorisms’, he quotes Galen’s On the Function of the Parts of the Body (Stephen, Commentary on Hippocrates’ ‘Aphorisms’, 4.26, ed. Westerink, (1992) 278.4–5, and Galen’s pharmacological treatise On the Capacities of Simple Drugs, 5.23, ed. Westerink (1995) 78.15). John of Alexandria, in his Commentary on Hippocrates’ ‘Epidemics VI’, refers to many Galenic non-canonical works: see ed. Pritchet (1975) 456, index. In Palladios’ Commentary on Hippocrates’ ‘Epidemics VI’, only Galen’s On Affected Parts (Diagnostikē) is mentioned (ed. Dietz (1834) II.14.30). 4 Ihm (2002). Gesios commented on all or at least some of the works of the canon, according to the Arab bibliographer Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah, Sources of Information on the Classes of Physicians (ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ), ed. Müller (1884) II.104.1ff. For the commentaries on Galen’s On Sects for Beginners and On Mixtures, see the Appendix.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004394353_005 Galen’s Legacy in Alexandrian Texts 63 description of the canon is found in the Arabic translation of the preface of the Synopsis of the Sixteen Works of Galen by John the Grammarian, or Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī as he is known in Arabic:5

Chapter on the ordering of the sixteen [books] and their distinction and their limitation to this number.6 You must know that the sixteen books divide into two groups, one with the role of introduction to the theory and the practice of the medical art, and [these] are the first four [books], namely [1] the book On the Sects, [2] the book On the Small Art,7 and [3] the book On the Pulse and [4] the book To Glaucon; the observation and the practice of medicine are [formed by] 12 books, thereof four belong to the natural things and are [5] the book of the Elements and [6] [the book] of the Temperaments8 and [7] [the book] of the Natural Capacities, and [8] [the book] of the Dissec- tion; and six belong to the things outside nature and are [9] the book On Affections/Causes9 and Symptoms, and [10] the Affected Parts, and [11] the Great Pulse, and [12] the Crises, and [13] the Critical Days and [14] the Fevers; and one of them concerns what preserves the natural things and is [15] the book of the Diet of Healthy People, and another concerns the restoration of the things that are outside nature and is [16] the book of the Method of Healing. This is the division of the books and their ordering; the reason of their being limited to this number is that it suffices to the art thus established on it; for, since the aim of the medical art is the preservation of what is natural and the restoration of what is against nature into the natural state, it follows from this that the pupil should consider what is natural

5 Other accounts are provided by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and Ibn Riḍwān; see Iskandar (1976). The Arabic sources often confound John the Grammarian with John Philoponos; see Garofalo (2000b). 6 The numbering (in brackets) of the relevant texts is mine. 7 This is the title for Galen’s Art of Medicine (the same in also in summary of the same work). In Agnellus (see the Appendix), the title is Ars, and in the Greek commentaries of the Alexandrian scholars it is Technē; see Boudon (2000: 149ff). 8 In Arabic mizâj may also designate a plurality. 9 Book of the Affections and the Symptoms. Iskandar (1976: 246) translates it as ‘ilal (On) Diseases. Ḥunayn, in his Risālah, ed. Bergsträsser (1925) 11 = 16, ed. Lamoreaux (2016) 25, attributes the title On the Causes to the scholars in Alexandria. In fact, the Greek title is in the singular, Peri Aitias, as it is preserved, for example, in the relevant tabula in Vindobonensis med. gr. 16, fol. 340v; see Gundert (1998). Ḥunayn attributes the title On Affections and Symptoms to the Syriac tradition, which he uses in the Risālah and in the translation of the summary. It is now known that it is also found in John the Grammarian’s synopsis and summary.