Galen: On the Natural Faculties

by Galen

Subsequent
History of
Galen’s
Works. Galen wrote extensively, not only on anatomy, physiology, and medicine in general, but also on logic; his logical proclivities, as will be shown later, are well exemplified in his medical writings. A considerable number of undoubtedly genuine works of his have come down to us. The full importance of his contributions to medicine does not appear to have been recognized till some time after his death, but eventually, as already pointed out, the terms Galenism and Greek medicine became practically synonymous.

A few words may be devoted to the subsequent history of his writings.

Byzantine
Medicine. During and after the final break-up of the Roman Empire came times or confusion and of social reconstruction, which left little opportunity for scientific [Pg xix] thought and research. The Byzantine Empire, from the 4th century onwards, was the scene of much internal turmoil, in which the militant activities of the now State-established Christian church played a not inconsiderable part. The Byzantine medical scholars were at best compilers, and a typical compiler was Oribasius, body-physician to the Emperor Julian (4th century, a.d.); his excellent Synopsis was written in order to make the huge mass of the Galenic writings available for the ordinary practitioner.

Arabian
Medicine. Greek medicine spread, with general Greek culture, throughout Syria, and from thence was carried by the Nestorians, a persecuted heretical sect, into Persia; here it became implanted, and hence eventually spread to the Mohammedan world. Several of the Prophet’s successors (such as the Caliphs Harun-al-Rashid and Abdul-Rahman III) were great patrons of Greek learning, and especially of medicine. The Arabian scholars imbibed Aristotle and Galen with avidity. A partial assimilation, however, was the farthest stage to which they could attain; with the exception of pharmacology, the Arabians made practically no independent additions to medicine. They were essentially systematizers and commentators. “Averrois che il gran comento feo”[2] [Pg xx] may stand as the type par excellence of the Moslem sage.

Avicenna (Ebn Sina), (10th to 11th century) is the foremost name in Arabian medicine: his “Book of the Canon in Medicine,” when translated into Latin, even overshadowed the authority of Galen himself for some four centuries. Of this work the medical historian Max Neuburger says: “Avicenna, according to his lights, imparted to contemporary medical science the appearance of almost mathematical accuracy, whilst the art of therapeutics, although empiricism did not wholly lack recognition, was deduced as a logical sequence from theoretical (Galenic and Aristotelian) premises.”

Introduction
of
Arabian
Medicine
to the West.
Arabo-Scholastic
Period. Having arrived at such a condition in the hands of the Mohammedans, Galenism was now destined to pass once more to the West. From the 11th century onwards Latin translations of this “Arabian” Medicine (being Greek medicine in oriental trappings) began to make their way into Europe; here they helped to undermine the authority of the one medical school of native growth which the West produced during the Middle Ages—namely the School of Salerno.

Blending with the Scholastic philosophy at the universities of Naples and Montpellier, the teachings of Aristotle and Galen now assumed a position of supreme authority: from their word, in matters [Pg xxi] scientific and medical, there was no appeal. In reference to this period the Pergamene was referred to in later times as the “Medical Pope of the Middle Ages.”

It was of course the logical side of Galenism which chiefly commended it to the mediaeval Schoolmen, as to the essentially speculative Moslems.

The
Renascence. The year 1453, when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks, is often taken as marking the commencement of the Renascence. Among the many factors which tended to stimulate and awaken men’s minds during these spacious times was the rediscovery of the Greek classics, which were brought to Europe by, among others, the scholars who fled from Byzantium. The Arabo-Scholastic versions of Aristotle and Galen were now confronted by their Greek originals. A passion for Greek learning was aroused. The freshness and truth of these old writings helped to awaken men to a renewed sense of their own dignity and worth, and to brace them in their own struggle for self-expression.

Prominent in this “Humanist” movement was the English physician, Thomas Linacre (c. 1460-1524) who, having gained in Italy an extraordinary zeal for the New Learning, devoted the rest of his life, after returning to England, to the promotion of the litterae humaniores, and especially to making Galen accessible to readers of Latin. Thus the “De Naturalibus Facultatibus” appeared in London in [Pg xxii] 1523, and was preceded and followed by several other translations, all marked by minute accuracy and elegant Latinity.