If we consider that portion which may be described as the Medical Experimentation proper, we find that the Pseudo-Galen, or whoever he is, goes on to say that he does not grieve so much over the loss of other books in the fire as he does concerning some medical experiments which were there and which he had acquired from certain good experimenters (a quibusdam bonis viris experimentatoribus). For a single one of those experiments he may have had to give in exchange several good experiments of his own or perhaps a considerable sum of money. Sometimes a man may make a fortune and get a name for great learning by knowing just one experiment which will cure a single disease. Such men are very reluctant to impart their secret to others and sometimes it dies with them. Having thus secured the reader’s sympathy, attention, and interest, the author discloses the fact that, despite his losses in the fire which descended upon the altar, he still has some experiments left. He affirms that he has composed the present work of medicines tested by his own experience or received from good medical men, and that he does not fill up his book with familiar remedies like tyriac and opiates, but introduces medicines whose existence is generally unknown.
Experimenters of many lands and cities.
Our author then proceeds to list one medical compound after another, giving its ingredients and method of preparation, its effects on various parts and processes of the human body, and the diseases which it cures. Sometimes he explains the properties and operation of each constituent. He usually gives the name and city of the experimenter from whom he received the prescription, but these proper names are difficult to decipher, as they vary in the printed editions and manuscripts[2394] and are often abbreviated and probably misspelled in both. Thus “the experiments of Yrini pigami romani” are perhaps the same as “the experiments of Urcanus Romanus” which Gilbert of England cites for some pills for sciatica.[2395] However, we seem to read of Sacon or Socion, “the greatest of Greek medical men,” whose experiments our author gets from his disciples; of Gargeus or Agarges, who was the lord of all the wise men of his time; of Cateline, physician to King Lithos; and of other physicians and medicines from Egypt, Macedonia, and Sicily. Often a number of experiments are taken from a single authority; eleven from Gereon the Greek which our author has put to the test and found to be truly marvelous; thirty by Athaharan, an experimenter of the city of Abthor, some of which our author apologizes for as well known; three compound and thirty simple medicines by Achaason, an experimenter of the city of Athens; twenty from Zeno of Athens, a great physician whom our author says he had never seen because not contemporary with him, but that his master had seen him and got good experiments from him and passed them on to our author who has proved them oftentimes and found them true. Our author especially esteems the physicians of the altars, who are reputed superior to other medical practitioners because they cure by means of the sacrificial meats. Of a medicine which he received “from an Egyptian stranger,” he exclaims that it has not its like and that this stranger had it from one of the physicians of the altars. These allusions suggest that our author is a pagan, perhaps a Sabian like Thebit ben Corat, rather than a Mohammedan or Christian, but are perhaps a dodge of the forger like his opening allusion to the fire which descended on the altar—suggestive of fire-worship in Rasis’ own Persia.
Who was the Latin translator?
In several manuscripts[2396] the treatise which we have just been discussing is ascribed to Galen rather than Rasis and is said to have been translated from Greek into Arabic by John or Johannitius, that is, by Honein ben Isʿhak or Hunain ibn Ishak, or Hunayn ibn Ishaq, a Christian Arab who died in 873,[2397] and from Arabic into Latin by a Franchinus or Farachius or Ferranus or Ferrarus or Frarthacius. Steinschneider[2398] has explained the spellings, Franchinus, Farachius, Faragut, Fararius, and Ferrarius, as all applying to Faradj ben Salem, a Jew of Girgenti who was connected after 1279 with Charles of Anjou as a translator. This Jew, commonly called Faragius or Feragius in the Latin manuscripts, translated the Continens of Rasis[2399] and the medical treatise entitled Tacuinum Dei.[2400] But can he be identified with the Ferrarius whom De Renzi[2401] classed among the medical writers of the school of Salerno and whose works are found in a manuscript dated as early as the twelfth century?[2402] Also our treatise would seem to have been translated into Latin by the first half of the thirteenth century, since there are several manuscripts of it from that century, and since Gilbert of England cites either it or the Rasis on pains of the joints which regularly accompanies it. Perhaps Faragius made a re-translation, apparently not an uncommon occurrence in the medieval period. It is also worth recalling that Peter the Deacon listed among the works translated by Constantinus Africanus a De experimentis. Can this have been the treatise ascribed to Galen or Rasis, and can Franchinus and the other names possibly be corruptions of Africanus? But this is not all. Just as Galen and Rasis have ascribed to them both medical works and works of alchemy, so one manuscript contains “Extracts from the treatise on the art of alchemy of brother Ferrarius,” who, like that other friar inclined to alchemy, Roger Bacon, “directs his letter to the Pope.”[2403] Nor do these extracts seem to agree with the treatise in alchemy of Efferarius which has been printed,[2404] although he too is described as a monk who addresses apostolicum quendam.[2405] Probably, however, the same alchemist is meant in both cases, but it also seems probable that in general there was more than one writer named Ferrarius. But from the perplexing problems of who was the translator of the Medical Experiments and of the identity or different personality indicated by Ferrarius and other similar names let us turn to another work attributed to Galen.
The Secrets of Galen.
The Secrets of Galen, or The Book of Secrets, is a treatise which seems to occur with fair frequency in the manuscripts[2406] and has also appeared in print.[2407] It is perhaps most found with other works of Galen, but also occurs in manuscripts containing experimental books, and in particular the Medical Experiments of Galen or Rasis just considered, or in manuscripts with other works of Rasis. Gerard of Cremona is often mentioned in the manuscripts as the translator of the work from Arabic into Latin, and such a translation is included in the list of Gerard’s works drawn up by his associates soon after his death.[2408] At the close of the treatise occurs this statement: “Says Hunayn, son of Isaac, ‘This is what we have found from the books (or, book) of Galen for the use of the religious, and it is more glorious and blessed than his other books, and of aid, so that if another book were lost, I could supply it from this one.’”[2409] This statement seems to indicate that this treatise, like the Medical Experiments, had first been translated from the Greek to the Arabic by Honein ben Ishak, or perhaps rather that Honein, who was a Christian Arab, has made a compilation of extracts from the works of Galen for the use of persons of religion.
Addressed to “friend Monteus.”
The opening words of the treatise are: “You have asked me, O friend Monteus, to write you a book on the cure of diseases in accordance with experimental medicine and rational considerations from those numerous cases which I have wisely tested of good men of religion in the service of the king (or, in the observance of the Faith).”[2410] That these remarks are not the preface of a translator but the words of the original author is indicated not only by the fact that in at least one manuscript[2411] they are called, “The words of Galen,” but also by the fact that, after the writer has made a few general medical observations and allusions to his other writings on the elements, on aid to the limbs, on disease and accidents, and on compound medicines, he again addresses “brother Montheus” under the caption, “Words of Galen commending his book.”[2412] Montheus is now told that “this is the book of great assistance which I composed in medicine, for I have tested all its contents many times in similar constitutions.” Galen, or whoever the writer may be, regards this treatise as supplementing and rectifying his work on compound medicines. In yet a third passage “friend Monteus” is told of an “alcohol” which keeps the eyes in good condition which the writer has used.[2413]
Was he William of Saliceto’s “friend Montheus”?