Pseudo-Galenica

The works of Galen of Pergamum (c. 129-216 CE) were fundamental in the shaping of medicine, philosophy and neighbouring areas of knowledge, from antiquity through to the middle ages and early modern times, across a variety of languages and cultures. Yet, as early as Galen's own lifetime, spurious treatises crept into the body of his authentic works, in spite of his best efforts to provide the public with a catalogue of his own production (De libris propriis). For centuries, readers have used a fluid body of Galenic works, shaped by changing intellectual frameworks and social-cultural contexts. Several inauthentic works have enjoyed remarkable popularity. But this has had consequences in modern scholarship. The current reference edition (Kühn, 1821-1833) fails to distinguish clearly between authentic and inauthentic texts; many works lack any critical study, which makes navigating the corpus unusually difficult.

This volume, arising from a conference held in 2015 at the Warburg Institute and funded by the Wellcome Trust, will provide much-needed clarification about the boundaries of the Galenic corpus, identifying and analysing the works that do not genuinely belong to Galen's production.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Muddy Waters: Pseudo-Galenic Texts and the Formation of the Galenic Corpus
Caroline Petit & Simon Swain

1. Three Pseudo-Galenic Texts: Pharmacology and Society in Imperial Rome
Vivian Nutton

2. Is the Theriac to Piso Attributed to Galen Authentic?
Véronique Boudon-Millot

3. Easy Remedies – Difficult Texts: the Pseudo-Galenic Euporista
Laurence Totelin

4. Les manuscrits grecs des Definitiones medicae pseudo-galéniques
Marie Cronier

5. Four Works on Prognostic Attributed to Galen (Kühn vol. 19):New Hypotheses on Their Authorship, Transmission, and Intellectual Milieu
Caroline Petit

6. Pseudonymity and Pseudo-Galen in the Syriac Traditions
Siam Bhayro

7. Pseudo-Galenic Texts on Urines and Pulse in Late Byzantium
Petros Bouras-Vallianatos

8. About the Authenticity of Galen’s Περὶ ἀλυπίας in Medieval Hebrew, Compared to the Recently Found Greek Text
Mauro Zonta†

9. Pseudo-Galenic Texts in the Editions of Galen, 1490–1689
Stefania Fortuna

10. Alessandro Achillini and the 1502 Galen Opera Omnia: The Influence of Pseudo-Galenic Sources in Early Sixteenth Century Anatomy
R. Allen Shotwell

11. Commentariis in Hippocratis librum Epidemiarum II uti non licet: G.B. Rasario and the false ‘Galenic’ commentary on Epidemics II
Christina Savino

12. La fortune du De spermate dans les éditions imprimées de Galien du XVIᵉ au XVIIᵉ
Outi Merisalo

Index codicum manuscriptorum

Index