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Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (AD 129 – 200), better known as Galen of Pergamum (Greek: Ga?????, Galenos), was a prominent Roman physician and philosopher of Greek origin, and probably the most accomplished medical researcher of the Roman period. His theories dominated Western medical science for well over a millennium, though some of his theories were later proven wrong by Andreas Vesalius over 1000 years later.
n was born in the ancient Greek city of Pergamon (Pergamum or Pergamos), now Bergama in the region of Mysia on the Sea of Marmara, Asia Minor, now Turkey, which was part of the Roman Empire, on September 1, AD 129 (estimates vary from 125-131)
Controversies over name
His name, Ga????? in Greek, meant quiet or peaceable.
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Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (AD 129 – 200), better known as Galen of Pergamum (Greek: Ga?????, Galenos), was a prominent Roman physician and philosopher of Greek origin, and probably the most accomplished medical researcher of the Roman period. His theories dominated Western medical science for well over a millennium, though some of his theories were later proven wrong by Andreas Vesalius over 1000 years later.
Life
Early life
Galen was born in the ancient Greek city of Pergamon (Pergamum or Pergamos), now Bergama in the region of Mysia on the Sea of Marmara, Asia Minor, now Turkey, which was part of the Roman Empire, on September 1, AD 129 (estimates vary from 125-131)
Controversies over name
His name, Ga????? in Greek, meant quiet or peaceable. The abbreviation "Cl.", was first documented in texts from the Renaissance and may denote that Galen belonged to the Claudian gens. The contention that "Cl." is an abbreviation for the honourific Clarissimus is erroneous: Clarissimus (correctly, vir clarissimus or clarissimus vir) was a title reserved for the senatorial class, of which Galen was not a member; the usual abbreviation for it being V.C. or C.V. "Cl." invariably only appears as an abbrevation for the name Claudius. However, note that Galen's father, Aelius Nicon, belonged to the Aelian gens. This being so, it is likely that Nicon's son also bore the family name Aelius.
Life in Pergamum
He describes his early life in "On the affections of the mind". Born in September 129 AD, his father Aelius Nicon was a wealthy patrician, an architect and builder, with eclectic interests including philosophy, mathematics, logic, astronomy, agriculture and literature. Galen describes his father as a "highly amiable, just, good and benevolent man". At that time Pergamon was a major cultural and intellectual centre, noted for its library (Eumenes II), second only to that in Alexandria
and attracted both Stoic and Platonic philosophers, to whom Galen was exposed at age 14. His studies also took in each of the principal philosophical systems of the time, including Aristotelian and Epicurean. His father had planned a traditional career for Galen in philosophy or politics and took care to expose him to literary and philosophical influences. However Galen states that in around 144, his father had a dream in which the God Asclepius (Aesculapius) appeared and commanded Nicon to send his son to study medicine. Again, no expense was spared, and following his earlier liberal education, at 16 he began studies at the prestigious local sanctuary or Asclepieum dedicated to Asclepius, God of medicine, as a ?e?ape?t?? (therapeutes, or attendant) for four years. There he came under the influence of men like Aeschrion, Stratonicus and Satyrus. Asclepiea functioned as spas or sanitoria to which came the sick to seek the ministrations of the priesthood. The temple at Pergamon was eagerly sought by Romans in search of a cure. It was also the haunt of notable people such as Claudius Charax the historian, Aelius Aristeides the orator, Polemo the sophist, and Cuspius Rufinus the Consul.
First voyage
In 148, when he was 19, his father died, leaving him independently wealthy. He then followed the advice he found in Hippocrates' teaching
and travelled and studied widely including Smyrna (now Izmir), Corinth, Crete, Cilicia (now Çukurova), Cyprus and finally the great medical school of Alexandria, exposing himself to the various schools of thought in medicine. In 157, aged 28, he returned to Pergamon as physician to the gladiators of the High Priest of Asia, one of the most influential and wealthiest men in Asia. Over the four years there he learnt the importance of diet, fitness, hygiene and preventive measures, as well as living anatomy, and the treatment of fractures and severe trauma, referring to their wounds as "windows into the body". Only five deaths occurred while he held the post, compared to sixty in his predecessor's time, generally ascribed to his attention to their wounds. At the same time he pursued studies in theoretical medicine and philosophy.
Rome
Galen provides accounts of his later life in Rome, in On Prognosis, and On his own Books. St?s?? (stasis, or political unrest) in Pergamon was probably the reason for Galen to leave Pergamon in 161, travelling in the Eastern Mediterranean studying the properties of minerals. His travels took him to Lemnos, Cyprus, and Palestinian Syria (now Israel), before reaching Rome in August 162, aged 33, in the second year of the reign of the joint Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. As a Greek in Rome, he faced cultural challenges, stiff competition and professional jealousy.
Eudemus
One of his more famous patients was the peripatetic philosopher Eudemus, a friend of his father, and his former tutor. He recounts curing Eudemus of Quartan Fever in 162 (Praen 2:5)
This proved fortuitous, since during this illness, Eudemus was visited by Flavius Boethus, a former Consul and later Governor of Palestine (166-8),
Sergius Paulus, who became a Prefect, and Severus, uncle of the Emperor Lucius. They were Aristotelians and had heard of Galen's anatomical skills and were anxious to set up vivisection demonstrations, which they hoped would promote him (AA). Galen's skills in caring for Eudemus and his rigorous philosophical explanation of the pathology greatly enhanced his reputation in the upper circles of Rome. His bent for didactic teaching of his patients led him to seek those he could discourse with as a clientale.
Word of how he gave Eudemus a prognosis earned disapproval from some Roman physicians such as Martianus (an Erasistratean), who compared it to divination. Providing a prognosis was not part of their tradition, unlike Galen and the Hippocratic school. Galen in turn criticised the Roman doctors for their relationship with rich patrons, ostentatious dress and belief that medicine could be learned quickly. Galen was fortunate in having the wise advice of Eudemus to guide him through the politics of Roman medicine and society, even warning him that he might be in danger of his life.
Bloodletting
At first reluctantly, but then with increasing vigour, Galen promoted Hippocratic teaching including venesection, then unknown in Rome. This was sharply criticised by Erasistrateans, who predicted dire outcomes, believing that it was not blood but Pneuma that flowed in the veins. Galen however staunchly defended venesection in his three books on the subject,
and in his demonstrations and public disputations.
Reputation
Galen's fame rested on his anatomical demonstrations, success with influential patrons where others had failed, his learning and his rhetoric. His background and wealth and friendship with Eudemus helped him advance in Roman society. However, Galen was not reluctant to show his contempt for the learning and ethics of his contemporaries in Rome, and his ambitiousness created enemies.
This first Roman sojourn coincided with the Parthian Wars of the Emperor Lucius Verus (161-166). (Praen 14:647-9)
Pergamon interlude (166-168)
When he returned to Pergamon in August 166 he claimed he had departed due to professional jealousy, although the outbreak of the Antonine Plague which accompanied the return of Lucius Verus' army in that year
may have contributed to this.
Return to Rome
He was recalled to Rome by the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus to serve in the German wars, a task he did not relish, preferring to stay in Rome with Marcus Aurelius' son, Commodus. Amongst his clients was the Consul Flavius Boethus, who had introduced him to the imperial court, where he became personal physician to Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus, returning to Rome on the death of Verus in 169. He later also served as physician to the Emperor Septimius Severus. His own writings are rich with anecdotes illustrating the heights of his fame.
Despite being a member of the court, Galen reputedly shunned Latin, preferring to speak and write in his native Greek, a tongue that was actually quite popular in Rome. Galen spent most of the rest of his life at the Roman imperial court, where he was given leave to write and experiment. The bulk of his output occurring during this period. For instance, On Prognosis was written in 177-8. He returned to Pergamon in the 190s.
Death
Because of a reference in the 10th century Suda lexicon, the year of Galen's death has traditionally been placed at 199/200. However, since some scholars argue that textual evidence shows Galen writing as late as 207, they contend that he lived longer, the latest year proposed being 217, according to Arabic sources, derived from Alexander of Aphrodisias.
Work
Galen's works covered a wide range of topics, from anatomy and physiology, and medicine to logic and philosophy, both summarising what was known and adding his own observations. His writings pay homage to, amongst others, Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics, but above all to Hippocrates, whom he refers to as "divine" (?e??tat?? ?pp????t?? Nat Fac III: 13). Thus much of his explanation of pathology relies on Hippocrates' humoral theories.
He proceeded by observation, deductive reasoning and experimentation, such as his demonstration of the effect of ligating the ureters (Nat Fac I: 13), and the functions of the spinal cord. His medical practice drew on the biological theory and anatomical observations from Aristotle to the Alexandrians in addition to his own research. His therapeutics led him to travel widely gathering elements and plants. However his reasoning led him astray as much as it did to truth, such as his rejection of the role of the stomach wall in digestion (Nat Fac III: 4) and his concepts of specific attraction.
Galen's approach to colleagues and the state of knowledge was very forthright. He despised what he referred to as partisanship (Nat Fac I: 13), and was impatient with those with whom he disagreed, such as the Erasistrateans
and Asclepiadeans. (Nat Fac I: 17) Another target of his scorn were the Methodists, abhorring their consideration of pathology in a vacuum, treating the disease not the patient, whereas he taught that vital processes in an organism had to be interpreted in relation to its environment. Other disputes were with the Atomists , and the Anatomists, arguing that the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts. His own personal credo was based on three branches of philosophy; logic, physics and ethics. (Opt Med) He wrote in a highly polished precise Attic style, using many words (such as haematopoietic) that have passed down to us in modern medical terminology, albeit with altered meaning.
Galen developed an interest in anatomy from his studies of Herophilus and Erasistratus, who had dissected the human body and even living bodies (vivisection). Although Galen studied the human body, dissection of human corpses was against Roman law, so instead he performed vivisections on pigs, apes, and other animals (e.g. Nat Fac III: 8), to study the function of the kidneys and the spinal cord. In this study of comparative anatomy, he frequently dissected the Barbary Macaque and other primates, assuming their anatomy was basically the same as that of humans. The legal limitations forced on him led to quite a number of mistaken ideas about the body. For instance, he thought a group of blood vessels near the back of the brain, the rete mirabile, was common in humans, although it actually is absent in humans.
Galen performed many audacious operations — including brain and eye surgeries — that were not tried again for almost two millennia. To perform cataract surgery, he would insert a long needle-like instrument into the eye behind the lens, then pull the instrument back slightly to remove the cataract. The slightest slip could have caused permanent blindness.
Galen identified venous (dark red) and arterial (brighter and thinner) blood, each with distinct and separate functions. Venous blood was thought to originate in the liver and arterial blood in the heart; the blood flowed from those organs to all parts of the body where it was consumed.
Published works
Galen produced more work than any author in antiquity,
and may have possibly written up to 600 treatises, although less than a third of his works have survived. His surviving work runs to around 3 million words. Carolus Kühn of Leipzig translated 122 of Galen's writings (1821-1833) and his edition, which is the most complete although flawed, consists of the Greek text, with Latin translations, and runs to 22 volumes, 676 index pages, and is over 20,000 pages in length. More modern projects like the Corpus Medicorum Graecorum have still to match the Kühn edition. A digital version of the Galen's corpus is included in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae a digital library of Greek literature started in 1972. Another useful modern source is the French (BIUM).
It has been reported that Galen employed 20 scribes to write down his words. In 191, a fire in the Temple of Peace destroyed many of his works, particularly treatises on philosophy. Others were lost in the destruction of the Library at Alexandria and in the general chaos associated with the collapse of the Roman Empire. The Arabs captured and preserved some ancient medical texts during the expansion and Golden Age of the Arab Empire - only those works exist today, and some still exist only in Arabic translation,
while others exist only in mediaeval Latin translations of the Arabic. In some cases scholars have even attempted to translate back into Greek where the original is lost.
So great was Galen's output in both quantity and authority that no single authoritative collection of his work exists, and controversy still exists as to the authenticity of a number of attributed works. The surviving Greek texts represent half of all the original Greek literature we have today. For some of the ancient sources, such as Herophilus, Galen's account of their work is all that survives. Even in his own time, forgeries and unscrupulous editions of his work were a problem, prompting him to write On his Own Books. Over the years many different titles have appeared for the same treatises. Sources are often in obscure and difficult to access journals or repositories. Forgeries in Latin, Arabic or Greek continued till the Renaissance. Consequently research on Galen's work is fraught with hazard.
Although written in Greek, by convention the works are referred to by Latin titles, and often by merely abbreviations of those.
Various attempts have been made to classify Galen's vast output. For instance Coxe (1846) lists a Prolegomena, or introductory books, followed by 7 classes of treatise embracing Physiology (28 vols.), Hygiene (12), Aetiology (19), Semeiotics (14), Pharmacy (10), Blood letting (4) and Therapeutics (17), in addition to 4 of aphorisms, and spurious works.
Legacy
In his time, Galen's reputation as both physician and philosopher was legendary, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius describing him as "Primum sane medicorum esse, philosophorum autem solum" (first among doctors and unique among philosophers Praen 14: 660). Other contemporary authors in the Greek world confirm this including Theodotus the Shoemaker, Athenaeus and Alexander of Aphrodisias. The 7th century poet George of Pisida going so far as to refer to Christ as a second and neglected Galen. Galen continued to exert an important influence over the theory and practice of medicine until the mid seventeenth century in the Byzantine and Arabic worlds and Europe. Hippocrates and Galen form important landmarks of 600 years of Greek medicine. AJ Brock describes them as representing the foundation and apex respectively.
A few centuries after Galen Palladius Iatrosophista in his commentary on Hippocrates, stated that Hippocrates sowed and Galen reaped.
Thus Galen summarised and synthesised the work of his predecessors, and it is in Galen's words (Galenism) that Greek medicine was handed down to subsequent generations, such that Galenism became the the means by which Greek medicine was known to the world. Frequently this was in the form of restating and reinterpreting, such as in Magnus of Nisibis' fourth century work on urine, which was in turn translated into Arabic. Yet the full importance of his contributions was not appreciated till long after his death. Galen's rhetoric and prolificity were so powerful as to convey the impression that there was little left to learn. The term Galenism has subsequently taken on both a positive and pejorative meaning as one that transformed medicine in late antiquity yet so dominated subsequent thinking as to stifle further progress.
Galenism in history
The era following Galen's death, and the gradual dissolution of the Roman and then Byzantine Empire was one of continual political turmoil during which scientific study held a low priority. Many commentators of the subsequent centuries such as Oribasius - physician to the emperor Julian who compiled a Synopsis in the 4th Century - preserved and disseminated Galen's works, making Galenism more accessible. Nutton refers to these authors as the "medical refrigerators of antiquity". In late antiquity medical writing veered increasingly in the direction of the theoretical at the expense of the practical. Many authors merely debating Galenism. Magnus of Nisibis was a pure theorist, as was John of Alexandria and Agnellus of Ravenna with their lectures on Galen's De Sectis. So strong was Galenism that other authors such as Hippocrates began to be seen through a Galenic lens, while his opponents became marginalised and other medical sects such as Asclepiadism slowly disappeared.
Greek medicine was part of Greek culture and as such spread West into Asia through Syria and Persia, largely by the Nestorians. There it came into contact with the Islamic world which assimilated it.
Islam
Islamic culture placed great emphasis on the teachings of Aristotle and Galen, which they systematised and commented on.
Hunayn ibn Ishaq translated (c.830-870) 129 works of "Jalinos" into Arabic. Galen's insistence on a rational systematic approach to medicine set the template for Islamic medicine, which rapidly spread throughout the Arab Empire. Arabic sources, such as Rhazes (Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi 865-925 AD), continue to be the source of discovery of new or relatively inaccessible Galenic writings. As the title, Doubts on Galen by Rhazes implies, as well as the writings of physicians such as Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) and Ibn al-Nafis, the works of Galen were not taken on unquestioningly, but as a challengeable basis for further enquiry.
A strong emphasis on experimentation and empiricism led to new results and new observations, which were contrasted and combined with those of Galen by writers such as Razi, Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi (Haly Abbas), Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulasis), Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Zuhr and Ibn al-Nafis. For example, the experiments carried out by Razi and Ibn Zuhr contradicted the Galenic theory of humorism, while Ibn al-Nafis' discovery of the pulmonary circulation contradicted the Galenic theory on the heart.
Reintroduction to Medieval Western culture
From the 11th century onwards, Latin translations of Islamic medical texts began to appear in the West, alongside the Salerno school of thought, and were soon incorporated into teaching at the universities of Naples and Montpellier. Galenism now took on a new unquestioned authority, Galen even being referred to as the "Medical Pope of the Middle Ages". Constantine the African was amongst those who carried out translations of both Hippocrates and Galen. Galen's writings on anatomy became the mainstay of the medieval physician's university curriculum, alongside Ibn Sina's The Canon of Medicine which elaborated on Galen's works. Unlike pagan Rome, Christian Europe did not exercise a universal prohibition of the dissection and autopsy of the human body and such examinations were carried out regularly from at least the 13th century. However, Galen's influence, as in the Arab world, was so great that when dissections discovered anomalies in Galen's anatomy, the physicians often tried to fit these into the Galenic system. An example of this is Mondino de Liuzzi, who describes rudimentary blood circulation in his writings but still asserts that the left ventricle should contain air.
Renaissance
The Renaissance and fall of the Byzantine Empire (1453) was accompanied by an influx of Greek scholars and texts to the West, allowing direct comparison between the Arabic commentaries and their Greek originals. This New Learning and the Humanist movement, particularly the work of Thomas Linacre, promoted litterae humaniores including Galen in the Latin scientific canon, De Naturalibus Facultatibus appearing in London in 1523. Debates on medical science now had two traditions, the more conservative Arabian and liberal Greek. The more extreme liberal movements, as exemplified by Paracelsus began to challenge the role of authority in medicine, symbolically burning the works of Avicenna and Galen at his medical school in Basle. Nevertheless Galen's pre-eminence amongst the great thinkers of the millennium is exemplified by a 16th century mural in the refrectory of the Great Lavra of Mt Athos. This depicts pagan sages at the foot of the Tree of Jesse, with Galen between the Sibyl and Aristotle.
Downfall of Galenism
Galenisms final defeat came from a combination of the negativism of Paracelsus and the constructivism of the Italian Renaissance anatomists, such as Vesalius in the 16th century. In the 1530s, Belgian anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius took on a project to translate many of Galen's Greek texts into Latin. Vesalius' most famous work, De humani corporis fabrica, was greatly influenced by Galenic writing and form. Seeking to examine critically Galen's methods and outlook, Vesalius turned to human cadaver dissection as a means of verification. Galen's writings were frequently disproved by Vesalius, who demonstrated Galen's errors through books and hands-on demonstrations, despite fierce opposition from pro-Galenist orthodoxy, such as Jacobus Sylvius. The examinations of Vesalius also disproved medical theories of Aristotle and Mondino de Liuzzi. One of the most well known examples of Vesalius' overturning of Galenism was his demonstration that the interventricular septum of the heart was not permeable, as Galen had taught (Nat Fac III xv). The most convincing demonstration of Galen's weakness came from these demonstrations of the nature of the circulation and the subsequent work of Andrea Cesalpino, Fabricio of Acquapendente and William Harvey. Some Galenic teaching, such as his emphasis on bloodletting as a remedy for almost any ailment, however remained influential until well into the 1800s.
Contemporary scholarship
Galenic scholarship remains an intense and vibrant field, following renewed interest in his work, dating from the Altertumswissenschaft.
Selected bibliography
(with Latin Titles) and standardised bibliographical abbreviations: see also Cambridge Companion to Galen: Appendices. Vol. and pp. notation according to Kühn edition). Ordered according to Coxe's taxonomy of 1846 (see References), which includes a summary of each work. Alternative names in (parentheses). Italicised citations from Galen's works refer to the Kühn edition.
Galen's own Bibliographies
- On My (His) Own Books (Lib. Prop.)
- On the Order of my Own Books (Ord. Lib. Prop.)
Introductory Treatises (Prolegomena, ??sa???? (Isagogici), Introductio)
- 2. The Best Doctor is also a Philosopher (A good physician must also be a philosopher) Si quis Optimus Medicus est, Eundum esses Philosophus (Opt. Med.)
- 3. Of verbal sophistry De Sophismatis in Verbo Contingentibus (Soph.)
- 5. Of the appropriate writings of Galen. De Libris Propriis (Galeni) (Lib. Prop.)
- 6. Of the order in which his writings are to be placed. De Ordine Librorum Suorum
- 7. Of different sects in medicine (On Sects) De Sectis
- 10. An exposition of the empiric sect De Subfiguratio(ne) Empirica (Subf. Empir.)
- 12. Of the art of medicine. De Constitutione Artis Medicae
- 16. Of the art of medicine. Ars Medicinalis
I: Physiology and Anatomy
- 1. The Elements De Elementis (Elem.)
- 2. Of temperaments (On Mixtures) De Temperamentis (Temp.)
- 3. Two commentaries of Galen on the books of Hippocrates, entitled, “Of the Nature of Man.” Galeni, in Librum Hippocratis, de Natura Humana (HNH)
- 4. Of the atrabilis, or black bile. De Atra Bile, Libellus (Atr. Bil.) (At. Bil.)
- 7. Of the bones (On Bones for Beginners) De Ossibus (Oss.)
- 11. Is blood naturally contained in the arteries? An in Arteriis (Natura) Sanguis Contineatur (An sanguis in arteriis natura contineatur) (Art. Sang.)
- 12. On Anatomical Procedures (Investigations) De Anatomicis Administrationibus (AA)
- 13. Of the dissection of the uterus (On the Anatomy of the Uterus) De Uteri Dissectione (Ut. Diss.)
- 15. Of the uses of the different parts of the human body (On the Usefulness/Utility of the Parts of the Body) De Usu Partium Corporis Humani (UP)
- 16. Of the utility of respiration De Usu (Utilitate) Respirationis
- 17. Of the causes of respiration De Causis Respirationis
- 18. Of the use of the pulse De Usu Pulsuum (Pulsuum Usu)
- 19. On the the subsistence of the Natural Faculties De Substantia Faculatatum Naturalium
- 20. Of the dogmas, or opinions of (On the Doctrines of) Hippocrates and Plato De Hippocratis et Platonis Decretis (Dogmatibus) (PHP) V
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- 23. Of the motion (movement) of the thorax (chest) and lungs De Motu Thoracis et Pulmonis
- 24. That the qualities of the mind depend on the temperament of the body Quod Animi Mores Corporis Temperatura Sequantur
- 25. Of the foetal formation De Foetuum Formatione (Foet. Form.)
- 26. Of the semen (On Semen) De Semine
II: Hygiene
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- On Good and Bad Humours (Bon. Mal. Suc.)
- On the Ptisan, or Barley-water De Ptisana
- On the Preservation of Health De Sanitate Tuenda (San. Tu.)
III: Aetiology
- 1.4. Of (On) the Causes of Symptoms De Symptomatum Causis (Caus. Symp.)
- 8. Of plethora De Plenitudine (Plen.)
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- 15. Commentary On Hippocrates' 'Epidemics' In Hippocratis de Morbis Vulgaribus, Commentarii (Hipp. Epid.)
IV: Semeiotics
- 1. On the parts affected by disease (On Affected Parts) De Locis Affectis (Loc. Aff.)
- 2. A concise treatise on the pulse for students (On the Pulse for Beginners) De Pulsibus Libellus ad Tyrones (Puls.)
- 3. Of the difference of pulses De Differentiis Pulsuum (Diff. Puls.)
- 4. On the knowledge of the pulse De Dignoscendis Pulsibus (De Pulsuum Differentiis) (Dig. Puls.)
- 5. On the causes of the pulse De Causis Pulsuum (Caus. Puls.)
- 6. Of prediction from the pulse De Praesagitione ex Pulsibus (Praes. Puls.)
- 7. Synopsis of his sixteen books on the pulse Synopsis Librorum Suorum, Sexdecim, de Pulsibus (Syn. Puls.)
- 12. Commentaries on the prognostics of Hippocrates (On Hippocrates' 'Prognostic') In Prognostica Hippocratis Comment. (Hipp. Prog.)
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- 14. On Prognosis De Praegnotione ad Epigenem (Praen.) V
V: Pharmacy
- On the Powers (and Mixtures) of Simple remedies (Drugs) De Simp. Medicament. Facultatibus (SMT)
- Of medicinal substitutes (On Substitute Drugs) De Substitutis Medicinis (Suc.)
- Of the faculty or power of purgative remedies (On the Power of Cleansing Drugs) De Purgantium Medicamentorum Facultate (Purg. Med. Fac.)
- Whom, with which, and at what time to purge (Whom to Purge, with what Cleansing Drugs and When) Quos Purgare Conveniat, Quibus Medicamentis, et Quo Tempore (Cath. Med. Purg.)
- Of the theriaca (On Theriac to Piso) De Theriaca, ad Pisonem (Ther. Pis.)
- On the use of the theriaca (On Theriac to Pamphilianus) De Usu Thericae, ad Pamphilianum
- On Antidotes De Antidotis (Ant.)
- Of the composition of local remedies De Compositione Medicamentorum Localium
- On the Composition of Drugs (Medical Compounds) according to Places De Compositione Medicamentorum Secundum Locus (Comp. Med. (Sec.) Loc.)
- Of the compounding of remedies in relation with their genera (On the Composition of Drugs according to Kind) De Compositione Medicamentorum per Genera (Comp. Med. per Gen.)
- Of weights and measures De Ponderibus et Mensuris Libellus
VI: Instruments of Clinical Practice
- Of venæsection in opposition to Erasistratus De Venæsectione, Adversus Erasistratum (Ven. Sect. Er.)
- Of venæsection, (Bloodletting) in opposition to Erasistratus De Venae Sectione Adversus Erasistrateos Romae Degentes (Ven. Sect. Er. Rom.) XI:197-249
- Of venæsection, in opposition to Erasistratus of Rome De Venasectione Adversus Erasistrataeos qui Romae Degebant
VII: Therapeutics
- 1. Of the method of curing diseases (On The Therapeutic Method) De Medendi Methodo, Seu de Morb. Curandis (De Methodo Medendi) (MM)
- 4. Of remedies of easy preparation (On Remedies Easy to Prepare) De Remediis Paratu Facilibus Libellus (Rem.)
- 12. Three commentaries on the Hippoc. treatise of the office of the physician. In Hippocratis de Officina Medici (In Hippocratem de Officina Medici)(Hipp. Off. Med.)
Additional works
- Commentary on Hippocrates' Aphorisms In Aphorismos Hippoc. (In Hippocratis Aphorismos) (Hp. Aph. Com.) (Hipp. Aph.)
Spurious
- On the Power of Centaura De Virtute Centaureae
Fragments
Other (not in Coxe taxonomy)
- On Medical Experience De Experientia Medica (Med. Exp.)
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- On Containing Causes De Causis Contentivus (CC)
- On Demonstration Dem.
- On My (His) Own Opinions De Proprius Placitis (Prop. Plac.)
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- On Things said in Many Ways
- Opportune Moments in Disease (Morb. Temp.)
- On the affections of the mind
- The Passions of the Soul De Propriorum Animi Cuiuslibet Affectuum Dignotione et Curatione (Aff. Dig.) V:40-1
- On Moral Character (Mor.)
- The Faculties of the Soul Follow the Mixture of the Body (QAM)
- On Propositions Missed out in the Expression of Demonstrations
- On Propositions With the Same Meaning
- On Slander De calumnia in quo et de vita sua
- On Sects for Beginners De Sectis Ingredientibus (SI)
- Introduction to Logic Institutio Logica (Inst. Log.)
- Adversus Julianum (Adv. Jul.)
- De Optima Doctrina (Opt. Doct.)
- De Animi Cuiuslibet Peccatorum Dignotione et Curatione (Pecc. Dig.)
Hippocratic commentaries
- On the Elements according to Hippocrates (Hipp. Elem.)
- On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato De Placitis Hippocratis et Platonis (PHP) V
- Commentary on Hippocrates' Aphorisms (Hp. Aph. Com.)
- On Hippocrates' 'Epidemics' (Hipp. Epid.)
- On Hippocrates' 'Prognostic' (Hipp. Prog.)
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Collections
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On the Humours
On Black Bile (Atr. Bil.)
On the Powers of Foods De alimentorum facultatibus (Alim. fac.)
On Uneven Bad Temperament (Inaeq. Int.)
On the Causes of Disease (Caus. Morb.)
On Barley
Collections
- Kühn, C.G. (ed.) Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia. Leipzig: C. Cnobloch, 1821-1833, rpt. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1964-5. (Greek, Latin trans.) Editio Kuchniana Lipsiae
- Galeni Scripta Minora. Leipzig 1884-93 3 vols. (Marquadt, Müller, Helmreich eds.) SM
- Corpus Medicorum Graecorum, Leipzig, 1914-present. Vol. V CMG
- Brock AJ. Greek Medicine, Being Extracts Illustrative of Medical Writers from Hippocrates to Galen. 1929 (repr. 1977)
- Singer PN (trans.) Selected works by Galen. OUP 1997
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BIUM Online sources
Sources
On Galen
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- Ilberg J. Aus Galens Praxis. Neue Jahrbücher für das Klassische Altertum, Geschichte und Deutsche Literatur 15: 276-312, 1905
- Peterson DW. Observations on the chronology of the Galenic Corpus. Bull Hist Med 51(3): 484, 1977
- Siegel RE. Galen's System of Physiology and Medicine, Basel 1968
- Siegel RE. Galen on Sense Perception, His Doctrines, Observations and Experiments on Vision, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch and Pain, and Their Historical Sources. Karger, Basel 1970
- Siegel RE. Galen on Psychology, Psychopathology, and Function and Diseases of the Nervous System 1973
- Temkin O. Galenism: Rise and Decline of a Medical Philosophy. Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1973
Galenic bibliography
- Kotrc RF, Walters KR. A bibliography of the Galenic Corpus. A newly researched list and arrangement of the titles of the treatises extant in Greek, Latin, and Arabic. Trans Stud Coll Physicians Phila. 1979 Dec;1(4):256-304
On Ancient Medicine
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- Nutton V. Roman Medicine, 250 BC to AD 200, and Medicine in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, in Lawrence C.(ed.) The Western Medical Tradition: 800-1800 A.D. 1995
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- Taylor HO. Greek Biology And Medicine. Marshall Jones 1922. Chapter 5: The Final System - Galen
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On the History of Medicine
On Philosophy
On classical texts
On related topics
See also
External links
Works
(Commentary on Hippocrates' On the Nature of Man; On the Natural Faculties; Exhortation to Study the Arts: To Menodotus; On Diagnosis from Dreams)
Commentaries
Other
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