Galen in Byzantine Medical Literature

Abstract

Studying Galen’s influence on Byzantine medical literature is a complex task. The main obstacles are the lack of modern critical editions for the majority of the texts and sometimes the complete unavailability of any edition, especially as regards works produced in the late Byzantine period. In addition, Byzantine medical texts have only rarely been subjected to critical examination by modern scholars. Despite the large number of commentaries and summaries of Galenic works produced in Alexandria between the fifth and seventh centuries,1 this trend did not continue into the later centuries. On the other hand, one sees that medical handbooks for contemporary physicians – such as projects similar to those by Aetios of Amida and Paul of Aegina2 – were being produced throughout the entire Byzantine era. In addition to handbooks, the era evidenced the production of monographs on various medical topics, including anatomy, physiology, diagnostics (pulse and urines), dietetics, and pharmacology. This chapter explores the various ways in which Galen was revived in the works of Byzantine medical authors by concentrating on literary output from the seventh/eighth century to the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. It is divided into three sections. The first focuses on texts dealing with Christian anthropology; next is the section that groups texts offering practical instructions in diagnostics and therapeutics; the last section deals with three exceptional cases deemed worthy of being treated separately.