Editing Galen (section)

==Legacy==
===Late antiquity===
[[File:Galenosgruppe (Wiener Dioskurides).jpg|thumb|upright=.9|A group of physicians in an image from the [[Vienna Dioscurides]]; Galen is depicted top center.]]

In his time, Galen's reputation as both physician and philosopher was legendary,<ref name="nutton84a">Nutton V. "Galen in the eyes of his contemporaries". ''BHM'' 58(3) fall 1984 315–24</ref> 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 of Byzantium|Theodotus the Shoemaker]], [[Athenaeus]] and [[Alexander of Aphrodisias]]. The 7th-century poet [[George Pisida|George of Pisida]] went so far as to refer to Christ as a second and neglected Galen.<ref>George of Pisida. Hexameron 1.1588f</ref> Galen continued to exert an important influence over the theory and practice of medicine until the mid-17th century in the Byzantine and Arabic worlds and Europe.<ref name="brock">Arthur John Brock (translator), ''Introduction. Galen. On the Natural Faculties''. Edinburgh 1916</ref> A few centuries after Galen, [[Palladius (physician)|Palladius Iatrosophista]] stated in his commentary on Hippocrates that Hippocrates sowed and Galen reaped.

Galen summarized and synthesized 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 means by which Greek medicine was known to the world. Often, this was in the form of restating and reinterpreting, such as in Magnus of Nisibis' 4th-century work on urine, which was in turn translated into Arabic.<ref name="nutton84"/> Yet the full importance of his contributions was not appreciated until long after his death.<ref name="brock"/> 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.<ref name="nutton84"/>

After the collapse of the Western Empire the study of Galen and other Greek works almost disappeared in the Latin West. In contrast, in the predominantly Greek-speaking eastern half of the Roman empire (Byzantium), many commentators of the subsequent centuries, such as [[Oribasius]], physician to the emperor [[Julian the apostate|Julian]] who compiled a ''Synopsis'' in the 4th century, preserved and disseminated Galen's works, making them more accessible. Nutton refers to these authors as the "medical refrigerators of antiquity".<ref name="brock"/><ref name="nutton84"/> In late antiquity, medical writing veered increasingly in the direction of the theoretical at the expense of the practical, with many authors merely debating Galenism. Magnus of Nisibis was a pure theorist, as were [[John of Alexandria]] and Agnellus of Ravenna with their lectures on Galen's ''De Sectis''.<ref>Temkin O. Studies on late Alexandrian medicine. Bull Hist Med 3: 405–30, 1935</ref> So strong was Galenism that other authors such as Hippocrates began to be seen through Galen's eyes, while his opponents became marginalised and other medical sects such as Asclepiadism slowly disappeared.<ref name="nutton84"/>

Greek medicine was part of Greek culture, and Syrian Christians came in contact with it while the [[Eastern Roman Empire]] (Byzantium) ruled Syria and western Mesopotamia, regions that were conquered in the 7th century by the [[Arabs]]. After 750, these Syrian Christians made the first translations of Galen into [[Syriac language|Syriac]] and [[Arabic]]. From then on, Galen and the Greek medical tradition in general became assimilated into the medieval and early modern Islamic Middle East.<ref name="brock"/> [[Job of Edessa]] is said to have translated 36 of Galen's works into Syriac, some of which were later translated into Arabic by [[Hunain ibn Ishaq]].<ref>Translated works listed in Alphonse Mingana (ed.); Job of Edessa, [https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/42928 ''Encyclopaedia of Philosophical and Natural Sciences as Taught in Baghdad about A.D. 817, or Book of Treasures''] (W. Hefer & Sons, 1935), p. xix.</ref>

===Medieval Islam===
{{further|Medicine in the medieval Islamic world}}
[[File:Galen in Kitab al-diryaq, Vienna AF 10.jpg|thumb|Galen ({{langx|ar|جالينوس|translit=Jalinus}}) in ''[[Kitab al-Dariyak]]'', 1225–1250, Syria. Vienna AF 10, Syria.]]
[[File:Kitab al-Dariyaq, folio 26.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Kitab al-Dariyak]]'' was allegedly based on the work of Galen. Here, [[Andromachus the Elder]] on horseback, questioning a patient who has received a snake bite. ''Kitab al-Dariyak'', 1198–1199, Syria.<ref name="OP">{{cite journal |last1=Pancaroǧlu |first1=Oya |title=Socializing Medicine: Illustrations of the Kitāb al-diryāq |journal=Muqarnas |date=2001 |volume=18 |pages=155–172 |doi=10.2307/1523306 |jstor=1523306 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1523306 |issn=0732-2992}}</ref>]]
Galen's approach to medicine became and remains influential in the Islamic world. The first major translator of Galen into Arabic was the Arab Christian [[Hunayn ibn Ishaq]]. He translated ({{Circa|830–870|lk=no}}) 129 works of "Jalinos"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://press.princeton.edu/books|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012180439/http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7100.html|url-status=dead|title=All Books|archivedate=12 October 2008|website=press.princeton.edu}}</ref> into [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. Arabic sources, such as [[Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi|Muhammad ibn Zakarīya al-Rāzi]] (AD 865–925), continue to be the source of discovery of new or relatively inaccessible Galenic writings.<ref name="nuttonchoice"/> One of Hunayn's Arabic translations, ''Kitab ila Aglooqan fi Shifa al Amrad'', which is extant in the Library of [[Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences|Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences]], is regarded as a masterpiece of Galen's literary works. A part of the Alexandrian compendium of Galen's work, this 10th-century manuscript comprises two parts that include details regarding various types of fevers (Humyat) and different inflammatory conditions of the body. More important is that it includes details of more than 150 single and compound formulations of both herbal and animal origin. The book provides an insight into understanding the traditions and methods of treatment in the Greek and Roman eras. In addition, this book provides a direct source for the study of more than 150 single and compound drugs used during the Greco-Roman period.

As the title of ''Doubts on Galen'' by al-Rāzi implies, as well as the writings of physicians such as [[Ibn Zuhr]] and [[Ibn al-Nafis]],<ref>{{cite journal|author = Reflections Chairman's|year = 2004|title = Traditional Medicine Among Gulf Arabs, Part II: Blood-letting|journal = Heart Views|volume = 5|issue = 2|pages = 74–85 [80]}}</ref> the works of Galen were not accepted unquestioningly, but as a challengeable basis for further [[Scientific method|inquiry]]. A strong emphasis on [[experiment]]ation and [[empiricism]] led to new results and new observations, which were contrasted and combined with those of Galen by writers such as al-Rāzi, [[Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi]], [[Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi]], [[Avicenna|Ibn Sina]] (Avicenna), Ibn Zuhr, and Ibn al-Nafis. For example, Ibn al-Nafis' discovery of the [[pulmonary circulation]] contradicted the Galenic theory on the heart.<ref name="Dabbagh">{{cite journal|author = Al-Dabbagh S. A.|year = 1978|title = Ibn Al-Nafis and the pulmonary circulation|journal = The Lancet|volume = 311|issue = 8074|page = 1148|doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(78)90318-5|pmid = 77431|s2cid = 43154531}}</ref>

The influence of Galen's writings, including humorism, remains strong in modern [[Unani medicine]], now closely identified with Islamic culture, and widely practiced from India (where it is officially recognized) to Morocco.<ref>Unani Tibb. [[Science Museum, London]]. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/techniques/unanitibb.aspx {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010154455/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/techniques/unanitibb.aspx|date=10 October 2015}} accessed 29 November 2015.</ref>
[[Moses Maimonides|Maimonides]] was influenced by Galen, whom he cited most often in his medical works, and whom he considered to be the greatest [[physician]] of all time.<ref>T. M. Rudavsky, Maimonides, p 6.</ref><ref>Moshe Halbertal, Maimonides: Life and Thought, p 71.</ref> In India many Hindu physicians studied Persian and Urdu languages and learnt Galenic medicine. This trend of studies among Hindu physicians began in the 17th century and lasted until the early 20th century (Speziale 2018).

===Middle Ages===
[[Image:Galenus - De pulsibus. Greek manuscript with latin translation. Venice, ca. 1550..jpg|thumb|upright=.9|''De Pulsibus'' ({{circa|1550}}), Galen's treatise on the pulse, in Greek and Latin]]

From the 11th century onwards, [[Latin translations of the 12th century|Latin translations of Islamic medical texts]] began to appear in the West, alongside the [[Schola Medica Salernitana|Salerno]] school of thought, and were soon incorporated into the curriculum at the universities of [[Naples University|Naples]] and [[Montpellier University|Montpellier]]. From that time, Galenism took on a new, unquestioned authority,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Siraisi |first=Nancy G. |date=2012 |title=Medicine, 1450–1620, and the History of Science |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/667970 |journal=Isis |volume=103 |issue=3 |pages=491–514 |doi=10.1086/667970 |jstor=10.1086/667970 |pmid=23286188 |issn=0021-1753}}</ref> Galen even being referred to as the "Medical Pope of the Middle Ages".<ref name="brock"/> [[Constantine the African]] was amongst those who translated both Hippocrates and Galen from Arabic. In addition to the more numerous translations of Arabic texts in this period, there were a few translations of Galenic works directly from the Greek, such as [[Burgundio of Pisa]]'s translation of ''De complexionibus''. Galen's works on anatomy and medicine 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.<ref>Toby E. Huff, ''The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West'', 191–193.</ref><ref>Joanna Carraway Vitiello, "Forensic Evidence, Lay Witnesses and Medical Expertise in the Criminal Courts of Late Medieval Italy", ''Medicine and the Law in the Middle Ages'', 134–135.</ref> However, Galen's influence was so great that when dissections discovered anomalies compared with 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. Some cited these changes as proof that human anatomy had changed since the time of Galen.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Raymond F.|title=Stories of Great Physicians|publisher=Whitman|year=1963|pages=46–47|chapter=The Anatomist}}</ref>

The most important translator of Galen's works into Latin was Niccolò di Deoprepio da Reggio, who spent several years working on Galen. Niccolò worked at the Angevin Court during the reign of king [[Robert, King of Naples|Robert of Naples]]. Among Niccolò's translations is a piece from a medical treatise by Galen, of which the original text is lost.<ref>{{cite book|last=Weiss|first=Roberto|title=The Dawn of Humanism in Italy|year=1947|publisher=H. K. Lewis & Co. Ltd.|location=London|pages=19}}</ref>

===Renaissance===
The first edition of Galen's complete works in Latin translation was edited by Diomede Bonardo of Brescia and printed at Venice by Filippo Pinzi in 1490.<ref>Stefania Fortuna, [https://www.academia.edu/11641978/The_Latin_Editions_of_Galen_s_Opera_omnia_1490_1625_and_Their_Prefaces "The Latin Editions of Galen's Opera omnia (1490–1625) and Their Prefaces"], ''Early Science and Medicine'' '''17''' (2012): 391–412.</ref>

The Renaissance, and the [[Fall of Constantinople|fall of the Byzantine Empire]] (1453), were accompanied by an influx of Greek scholars and manuscripts to the West, allowing direct comparison between the Arabic commentaries and the original Greek texts of Galen. This [[New Learning]] and the [[Renaissance humanism|Humanist]] movement, particularly the work of [[Thomas Linacre|Linacre]], promoted ''[[literae 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 the liberal Greek.<ref name="brock"/> The more extreme liberal movements began to challenge the role of authority in medicine, as exemplified by [[Paracelsus]]' symbolically burning the works of Avicenna and Galen at his medical school in [[University of Basel|Basel]].<ref name="brock"/> Nevertheless, Galen's pre-eminence amongst the great thinkers of the millennium is exemplified by a 16th-century mural in the refectory of the [[Great Lavra]] of [[Mt Athos]]. It depicts pagan sages at the foot of the [[Tree of Jesse]], with Galen between the [[Sibyl]] and [[Aristotle]].<ref name="nutton84">{{cite web|url=http://www.dahsm.medschool.ucsf.edu/history/IntroCourseIPDF/Nutton_Galen_to_Alex.pdf|title=Nutton V. From Galen to Alexander, aspects of medicine and medical practice in late antiquity. Dunbarton Oaks Papers. 38, 1984|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216212006/http://www.dahsm.medschool.ucsf.edu/history/IntroCourseIPDF/Nutton_Galen_to_Alex.pdf|archive-date=16 December 2008}}</ref>

Galenism's 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.<ref name="brock"/> In the 1530s, the Flemish 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 shown by Vesalius to describe details present in monkeys but not in humans, and he demonstrated Galen's limitations through books and hands-on demonstrations despite fierce opposition from orthodox pro-Galenists such as [[Jacques Dubois|Jacobus Sylvius]]. Since Galen states that he is using observations of monkeys (human dissection was prohibited) to give an account of what the body looks like, Vesalius could portray himself as using Galen's approach of description of direct observation to create a record of the exact details of the human body, since he worked in a time when human dissection was allowed. Galen argued that monkey anatomy was close enough to humans for physicians to learn anatomy with monkey dissections and then make observations of similar structures in the wounds of their patients, rather than trying to learn anatomy only from wounds in human patients, as would be done by students trained in the Empiricist model.<ref>{{cite journal|author = Cosans C|year = 1997|title = Galen's Critique of Rationalist and Empiricist Anatomy|journal = Journal of the History of Biology|volume = 30|issue = 1|pages = 35–54|doi = 10.1023/A:1004266427468|pmid = 11618979|s2cid = 35323972}}</ref> The examinations of Vesalius also disproved medical theories of [[Aristotle]] and [[Mondino de Liuzzi]]. One of the best 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''). However, this had been revealed two years before by Michael Servetus in his fateful "''Christianismi restitutio''" (1553) with only three copies of the book surviving, but these remained hidden for decades; the rest were burned shortly after its publication because of persecution of Servetus by religious authorities.

[[Michael Servetus]], using the name "Michel de Villeneuve" during his stay in France, was [[Vesalius]]' fellow student and the best Galenist at the University of Paris, according to [[Johann Winter von Andernach]],<ref>2011 "The love for truth. Life and work of Michael Servetus", (El amor a la verdad. Vida y obra de Miguel Servet.), González Echeverría, Francisco Javier, printed by Navarro y Navarro, Zaragoza, collaboration with the Government of Navarra, Department of Institutional Relations and Education of the Government of Navarra, 607 pp, 64 of them illustrations. Note 481 (.."''primum Andrea Vesalem..Post hunc, Michael Villanovanus familiariter milhi in consectionibus adhibitus est, vir in omni genere litterarum ornatissimus in Galenic doctrina, vix illi secundus..''" Audrey, Jean</ref> who taught both. In the Galenism of the Renaissance, editions of the ''Opera Omnia'' by Galen were very important, beginning from the [[Aldine Press]]' [[List of editiones principes in Greek|editio princeps in Venice in 1525]].<ref>J. P. Byrne, ''Encyclopedia of the Black Death'', ABC-CLIO, 2012, p. 231</ref> It was followed in Venice in 1541–1542 by the Giunta. There were fourteen editions of the book from that date until 1625. Just one edition was produced from Lyon between 1548 and 1551. The Lyon edition has commentaries on breathing and blood streaming that correct the work of earlier renowned authors such as [[Vesalius]], [[John Caius|Caius]], or [[Janus Cornarius]]. "Michel De Villeneuve" had contracts with Jean Frellon for that work, and the Servetus scholar-researcher Francisco Javier González Echeverría<ref>2002 " Michael Servetus in the  'Opera Omnia' of Galenus of 1548–1551 printed by Jean Frellon", González Echeverría, Francisco Javier. Book of communications, XII National Congress on History of Medicine., Albacete, 7–9 February, pp. 42–43</ref><ref>2004 "The edition of Lyon of the "Opera omnia' by Galenus of the printer Jean Frellon (1548–1551) commented by Michael Servetus", Francisco Javier González Echeverría and Ancín Chandía, Teresa. In: Medicine in the presence of the new millennium: a historical perspective. Coordinators: José Martínez Pérez, Isabel Porras Gallo, Pedro Samblás Tilve, Mercedes Del Cura González, Minutes from the XII Congress in History of Medicine, 7–9 February 2002, Albacete. Ed. Of the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Cuenca, pp. 645–657.</ref> presented research that became an accepted communication in the [[International Society for the History of Medicine]],<ref>2011 September 9th, Francisco González Echeverría VI International Meeting for the History of Medicine, (S-11: Biographies in History of Medicine (I)), Barcelona. ''New Discoveries on the biography of Michael De Villeneuve (Michael Servetus)'' & ''New discoverys on the work of Michael De Villeneuve (Michael Servetus)''</ref> which concluded that Michael De Villeneuve ([[Michael Servetus]]) is the author of the commentaries of this edition of Frellon, in [[Lyon]].<ref>2011 "The love for truth. Life and work of Michael Servetus", (El amor a la verdad. Vida y obra de Miguel Servet.), Francisco Javier González Echeverría, Francisco Javier, printed by Navarro y Navarro, Zaragoza, collaboration with the Government of Navarra, Department of Institutional Relations and Education of the Government of Navarra, 607 pp, 64 of them illustrations. pp. 194–204</ref><ref>[http://www.michaelservetusresearch.com/ENGLISH/works.html Michael Servetus Research] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221134108/http://www.michaelservetusresearch.com/ENGLISH/works.html|date=21 February 2017}} Website with a study on the Opera Omnia of Galen, by Michael de Villanueva</ref>

Another convincing case where understanding of the body was extended beyond where Galen had left it came from these demonstrations of the nature of human circulation and the subsequent work of [[Andrea Cesalpino]], [[Hieronymus Fabricius|Fabricio of Acquapendente]], and [[William Harvey]].<ref name="brock"/> Some Galenic teaching, such as his emphasis on [[bloodletting]] as a remedy for many ailments, however, remained influential until well into the 19th century.<ref>Brian, P., 1986, ''Galen on Bloodletting,'' Cambridge University Press</ref>

===Contemporary scholarship===
Galenic scholarship remains an intense and vibrant field, with interest in Galen's work bolstered by the German encyclopedia ''[[Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft]]''.<ref name="kotrc"/>

Copies of his works translated by Robert M. Green are held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/green082|title=Selected works of Galen / translated by Robert Montraville Green for Sidney Licht [c. 1953] 1951–1979|publisher= National Library of Medicine}}</ref>

In 2018, the [[University of Basel]] discovered that a mysterious Greek [[papyrus]] with [[mirror writing]] on both sides, which is in the collection of [[Basilius Amerbach]], a professor of [[jurisprudence]] at the university in the 16th century, is an unknown medical document of Galen or an unknown commentary on his work. The medical text describes the phenomenon of "hysterical apnea".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.unibas.ch/en/News-Events/News/Uni-Research/Mystery-of-the-Basel-papyrus-solved.html|title=Mystery of the Basel papyrus solved|publisher= University of Basel}}</ref>