Engagement with Galen's monumental corpus has involved translation throughout its history, from the Syriac translations of select Galenic writings by Sergius of Rēš ‘Aynā in the late-fifth to early-sixth centuries, and the more comprehensive Syriac and Arabic translation project of Hunain ibn Ishaq and his circle in the ninth, to the lengthy process of translating Galen into Latin, often from Arabic sources at first in the medieval era, then from sought after Greek manuscripts during the Renaissance. Yet in contrast to the fortunes of Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Corpus, the decline of Galen as a relevant medical authority since the early modern period undoubtedly reduced the demand for translations of Galen into the languages of modern scholarship. The resurgence of scholarly interest in Galen over the past few decades, however, has highlighted the stark need for reliable modern translations to facilitate access to his huge and multi-faceted œuvre. The difficulties are compounded by the relative lack of modern, critical editions of Galenic works, though progress has of course been made. The Corpus Medicorum Graecorum editions of Galen's and other ancient medical writings now standardly include facing translations, and the Budé series has in recent years contributed substantially to the edition and translation of the Galenic Corpus. The Loeb series has also shown signs of expanding its Galenic coverage. An enormous amount, however, remains to be done.
The present volume is the first product of the Cambridge Galen Translations Project, directed by P. van der Eijk. As he states in his preface, the ‘purpose of the series is to provide a co-ordinated series of scholarly English translations of works of Galen in a uniform format consisting of introduction, translation, explicative notes, glossaries and indexes’. Its inspiration has been drawn in particular from R. Sorabji's Ancient Commentaries on Aristotle project, and from the Cambridge translations of Proclus’ Commentary on Plato's Timaeus.
This first volume contains four texts connected by their focus on psychological and ethical themes. Subsequent volumes lined up so far will deal with Galen's works on the nature of human beings, on prognosis, on maintaining health, on the purpose of the parts of the body and on simple medicines.
After the prefatory remarks, there is a general introduction by S., offering an extremely helpful overview of Galen's life and writings as context for the treatises that follow, and especially of his psychology and its philosophical background.
The treatise which opens the series is also, fittingly, the one that has most recently resurfaced. On Avoiding Distress is a fascinating tract which was rediscovered only in 2005, in a Greek manuscript in the Monastery of the Vlatades in Thessaloniki. In it, Galen describes the aftermath of the Great Fire of Rome in a.d. 192, in which he, and many others, had suffered considerable losses to property. Galen lost the only surviving copies of many of his own writings that were placed in store houses along the Sacred Way, but also specially made medical instruments, precious drugs and other valuables. His stated purpose in this book is to offer advice to his puzzled addressee on how to rise above such misfortunes and maintain one's equanimity. The work contains a wealth of material on contemporary Rome, notably on its libraries, as well as representing a rare surviving example of Galen's ethical writings. It has already benefited from a number of critical editions and translations, but here V. Nutton offers its first translation into English, as well as an important introductory essay, notes and significant advances regarding the constitution of the text.
The three remaining works have been translated into English previously, but only in volumes now out of print, and the versions printed here have been fully revised and updated. The second treatise, Character Traits, which survives only in an Arabic abridgement, is Galen's study of the nature of the different kinds of êthos or ‘character’ of human beings, and their relationship to the rational and non-rational parts of the soul. It is translated by D. Davies in consultation with S., based on an earlier version by J. Mattock, and accompanied by a list of quotations from the work drawn from the later Arabic and Hebrew traditions. S. also provides a thorough introduction detailing the philosophical background to the text and Galen's distinctive contributions to his subject.
The final two treatises are Diagnosis and Treatment of the Affections and Errors Peculiar to Each Person's Soul and The Capacities of the Soul Depend on the Mixtures of the Body, translated, annotated and introduced by S. Each is of further importance, in different ways, for Galen's medical views concerning the interactions of body and soul. The former treatise outlines therapeutic approaches to affections of the soul such as anger, fear or envy, and to the errors of the soul which consist in false or mistaken reasoning. The latter examines the extent to which psychic states are influenced, or even determined, by underlying bodily mixtures of the elemental qualities, responding explicitly to the Platonic, Aristotelian and Stoic traditions. Scholarly work on this treatise has tended to focus on what appear to be discrepancies between Galen's strong arguments here and the weaker positions he defends elsewhere in his corpus. S. in his introduction makes an important contribution to this debate, minimising the apparent inconsistencies by highlighting and elucidating the peculiar argumentative context of The Capacities of the Soul.
All translations are accompanied by extremely valuable footnotes, which approximate to a short commentary on the text, often taking up more space on the page than the translation. Besides their introductory essays, each treatise also receives a separate section at the end devoted to specific textual problems that call for more thorough discussion. There is an appendix in the final part of the volume listing all the textual departures from the critical editions used.
Given the variety of translators involved in this project, considerable effort has been made to standardise translations used for a set of key terms. In accordance with this policy, the volume includes an English–Greek and an English–Arabic glossary, as well as indexes of Greek and Arabic words. Hence the reader can easily check the Greek or Arabic term lying behind the word chosen for the translations, and look up the various other renderings used for that term in all four treatises, with the list of references. Furthermore, an appendix is included listing all extant Galenic works, with notes on existing critical editions and modern translations, and the standard abbreviations of each work's title. Finally, there is a full bibliography of over 30 pages, a list of passages cited and a general index. These glossaries, indexes and appendices are the work of P. Tassinari.
No effort has been spared in the production of this volume, which adheres to the highest scholarly standards throughout. It will surely become a standard reference for students and scholars of all levels who have interests in Galen and the world in which he lived. It is to be hoped that the Cambridge Galen Translations Project will continue with its daunting but invaluable task for a long time to come.
