Syriac Medicine: Introduction

Abstract

A growing interest in Syriac science and medicine can be observed in scholarship published over the last decades.1 An impressive wealth of new textual discoveries and studies has been produced, often in the framework of important European research projects, which has facilitated fruitful collaborations between scholars.2 Inspired by this vibrant exchange, the present issue was conceived after the conference Medical Translators at Work. Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew and Latin Translations in Dialogue, which Oliver Overwien, Cristina Savino and I organized in 2014 at the Humboldt University of Berlin, as part of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship programme Medicine of the Mind, Philosophy of the Body, directed by Philip van der Eijk. The semantic layers that are potentially hidden in the expression ‘Syriac medicine’—which has been chosen to introduce this special issue—are instrumental in highlighting some key aspects of the subject. In fact, both the term ‘medicine’ and the adjective ‘Syriac’ require further specification. On the one hand, ‘Syriac’ can qualify the cultural milieu in which medicine was practiced, it can indicate the language in which medical texts were composed (or into which they were translated), or it can even specify the kind of script used to copy medical texts in manuscripts. Medicine penetrated different institutions