Chapter 5 Galen in Byzantine iatrosophia
Collection
WellcomeLanguage
EnglishAbstract
Within the academic community there are a number of common and widespread
prejudices about the nature of iatrosophia. Iatrosophia are usually
regarded as vernacular compilations of medical texts lacking structure or intellectual
value and being of a purely practical scope. In addition, because they
are often transmitted in only one manuscript, iatrosophia are viewed as ‘dead
ends’ of the transmission. Even though these views capture some characteristics
of the majority of known iatrosophia, they hardly suffice in defining a
genre. For instance, a number of texts fit the description but are not called
iatrosophia. Moreover, there are texts called iatrosophia that do not fit this
description.
Because of these very basic problems in understanding the genre, it is necessary
to take a look at the evidence to determine what iatrosophia actually
are before examining the reception of Galen in such works.
Keywords
Galen; Byzantine; iatrosophiaISBN
9789004302211, 9789004394353Publisher
BrillPublisher website
https://brill.com/Publication date and place
2019Grantor
Classification
History of medicine