Galen And Galenism

A study of Galenism, a rational medical system embracing all health- and disease-related matters, and the dominant medical doctrine in the Latin West during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It deals with a range of issues regarding the historical Galen and late-mediaeval and Renaissance Galenism

Galen of Pergamon, was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher. The most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, Galen contributed greatly to the understanding of numerous scientific disciplines, including anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology, as well as philosophy and logic. Galen's understanding of anatomy and medicine was principally influenced by the then current theory of humorism, as advanced by many ancient Greek physicians such as Hippocrates. His theories dominated and influenced Western medical science for more than 1,300 years. Medical students continued to study Galen's writings until well into the 19th century. Galen conducted many nerve ligation experiments that supported the theory, which is still accepted today that the brain controls all the motions of the muscles by means of the cranial and peripheral nervous systems.

Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Galen presents a comprehensive account of the afterlife of the corpus of the second-century AD Greek physician Galen of Pergamum. In 31 chapters, written by a range of experts in the field, it shows how Galen was adopted, adapted, admired, contested, and criticised across diverse intellectual environments and geographical regions, from Late Antiquity to the present day, and from Europe to North Africa, the Middle and the Far East. The volume offers both introductory material and new analysis on the transmission and dissemination of Galen’s works and ideas through translations into Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew and other languages, the impact of Galenic thought on medical practice, as well as his influence in non-medical contexts, including philosophy and alchemy.

This volume offers a comprehensive biography of the Roman physician Galen, and explores his activities and ideas as a doctor and intellectual, as well as his reception in later centuries. Nutton’s wide-ranging study surveys Galen's early life and medical education, as well as his later career in Rome and his role as court physician for over forty years. It examines Galen's philosophical approach to medicine and the body, his practices of prognosis and dissection, and his ideas about preventative medicine and drugs. A final chapter explores the continuing impact of Galen's work in the centuries after his death, from his pre-eminence in Islamic medicine to his resurgence in Western medicine in the Renaissance, and his continuing impact through to the nineteenth century even after the discoveries of Vesalius and Harvey. Galen is the definitive biography this fascinating figure, written by the preeminent Galen scholar, and offers an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Galen and his work, and the history of medicine more broadly.

Luis Alejandro Salas’ book, Cutting Words: Polemical Dimensions of Galen’s Anatomical Experiments, examines Galen’s experimental writing. In four case studies, it argues that Galen exploits writing as a surrogate for live performance and, in some cases, an improvement upon it.

Examines how Galen and his medieval Arabic successors invoke Plato's Timaeus to reimagine medicine and philosophy.