The Alphabet of Galen : pharmacy from antiquity to the Middle Ages
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Bibliographic Information
The Alphabet of Galen : pharmacy from antiquity to the Middle Ages
University of Toronto Press, c2012
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Preliminary critical text in English, with some words and phrases in Greek and Latin. The text of the Alphabet of Galen is in Latin, followed by the English translation on facing pages
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The Alphabet of Galen is a critical edition and English translation of a text describing, in alphabetical order, nearly three hundred natural products - including metals, aromatics, animal materials, and herbs - and their medicinal uses. A Latin translation of earlier Greek writings on pharmacy that have not survived, it circulated among collections of 'authorities' on medicine, including Hippocrates, Galen of Pergamun, Soranus, and Ps. Apuleius.
This work presents interesting linguistic features, including otherwise unattested Greek and Latin technical terms and unique pharmacological descriptions. Nicholas Everett provides a window onto the medieval translation of ancient science and medieval conceptions of pharmacy. With a comprehensive scholarly apparatus and a contextual introduction, The Alphabet of Galen is a major resource for understanding the richness and diversity of medical history.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements.
List of Plates.
The identification of plants.
Chapter I. Introduction to the Alphabet of Galen.
A. Introduction.
B. Character of the AG and its date of composition.
C. The (recorded) history of the AG.
D. The prologue and epilogue.
E. The Liber de dynamidiis.
F. A road through Ravenna?
G. Self-medicating in Late Antiquity.
H. Evaluating the AG's pharmacy.
I. Evaluating the AG's botany.
J. Conclusion.
Chapter II. Pharmacology.
A. Introduction.
B. Natural products and pharmacy.
C. Sensory perception.
D. Drug properties.
E. Four main properties and Greek cosmology.
F. Uis vs. uirtus.
G. Humour, bile and phlegm.
H. Explicit theorising in the AG.
I. Doctrine of signatures and the absence of magic.
J. Non-medical uses.
K. Conclusion.
Chapter III. Sources compared and lost.
A. Introduction
B. Dioscorides
C. Pliny
D. Sextius Niger: the possibility
E. Other lost sources B.C. to A.D.
F. Two linguistic echoes: the Diaeta Theodori and Ps. Apuleius
G. Conclusion
H. The Comparanda
Chapter IV. Language, Latinity and Translation.
A. Introduction. Language and dating the AG.
B. Grammar.
C. Vocabulary.
D. Uiscidus and uiscide.
E. The -aster / -astrum suffix.
F. Greek in the AG.
G. Conclusion.
H. Difficulties of terminology and translation.
I. Neologisms and rare words.
Chapter V. Manuscripts.
A. Overview and editorial principles.
B. Variants.
C. Manuscripts.
D. The Editio princeps (J).
Alphabetum Galieni (Latin Text) / The Alphabet of Galen (English translation).
Bibliography.
A. Ancient and Medieval Sources.
B. Modern Studies.
Index.
A. Plants and plant products.
B. Minerals and mineral products.
C. Animals and animal products.
D. Place-names.
E. Medical.
F. General.
G. Interesting or rare words (see also ch. IV.I).
H. Materia medica (general).
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