New Light and Old Texts: Galen on His Own Books

Abstract

My aim in this chapter is to show how the new material from the περὶ ἀλυπίας (Ind.)contributes to our understanding of Galen's attitude, practices and intentions in relation to the composition and distribution of his own books.The new text, I suggest, not only provides fresh perspectives but, perhaps more importantly, assists us to evaluate and see more clearly the evidence which was already available in the other most relevant texts in this area, especially My Own Books (Lib.Prop.) and The Order of My Own Books (Ord.Lib.Prop.)The 'new light' is thus shed in a process of mutual illumination between περὶ ἀλυπίας and other texts, rather than by the sudden availability of radically new and divergent information. Galen's LossesA good starting-point for this discussion might be: which of Galen's own writings did he actually lose in the fire which is the subject of περὶ ἀλυπίας?The answer turns out to be surprisingly elusive.Let us consider Galen's account of his losses overall.They are summarized in brief at sections 4-6.Galen lists: items made of precious metals; financial documents; drugs (both simple and compound) medical instruments; books (both copies of classical writings corrected in his own hand his own compositions); antidotes.The list is then elaborated, with, in particular, a lot more detail about the books, between this point and section 30, and with a further category, that of pharmacological recipes, added and discussed in some detail at 31-36.For simplicity, then, Galen's losses may thus be listed under two main heads: books and other possessions.1The books can again be divided: into books by other people and Galen's own compositions.Now, we would probably think 1 The category of pharmacological recipes, which in a sense could be thought of as books, is interesting here: they seem in fact to be considered by Galen as valuable commodities, rather like the materia medica itself, not as texts in any normal sense.This relationship of such unique, collectible, recipes to Galen's own pharmacological writings presents an interesting problem, though it cannot be explored here. P. N. Singer

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