The physician Claudius Galenus, better known as Galen of Pergamon, was the most famous
doctor in the Roman world of the 2nd century AD and probably the
most famous of antiquity.
He was born in Pergamon,
where he studied, and he completed his education in Smyrna (modern
Izmir),
Corinth, and Alexandria. He learned his skills in his
natal city while serving as an apprentice at the sanctuary of Asclepius. His
main clientele were the gladiators, and through this work, he gained much
experience in treating wounds of all kinds. This led to an unrivaled knowledge
of human anatomy, physiology, and neurology. His fame was such that it reached
even the imperial court of Rome.
He moved to that city in 161 AD, where he became the personal physician of the
emperors Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, and Commodus. By that time, he had
specialized in anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology, but he was also well-versed in philosophy and logic.
The influence of
Dr. Galen lasted for many centuries as
his works were translated first into Arabic and later into Latin. His
comprehension of the anatomy and physiology of the human body was not surpassed
till the 17th century. He borrowed his philosophy from Plato, Aristotle, and Epicurus and wrote an analysis
of dreams seventeen centuries before Sigmund Freud. Renowned Islamic
physicians, pharmacologists, and botanists heavily leaned on Galen’s studies. Over
the centuries, many scholars translated his books, reviving his vast field of
knowledge that was by the 11th-12th century taught at the newly founded
European universities like Oxford, Paris,
and Bologna.
It is evident that after almost two thousand years, Galen’s
legacy has been
disseminated among monasteries, madrassas, museums, universities, and private
collectors worldwide. This makes it difficult to get a complete list of his
works and almost impossible to know to what extent our books are complete. Lady Fortuna plays a vital role in such matters, and from time to time,
new works or hitherto unknown passages are discovered.
Papyri and parchments were expensive commodities in antiquity, and in the Middle Ages, thrifty monks
searching for writing support for their prayers effectively reused old
parchment. They scraped off the ancient manuscripts to overwrite them
with their Christian psalms and hymns perpendicularly to the initial writing.
This process is called Palimpsest.
[Picture from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory by Farrin Abbott]
One such
Palimpsest surfaced in Germany
at the beginning of the 1900s. Its origin has been traced back to the Monastery
of St Catherine on the Sinai Peninsula. Close
examination with special X-ray imaging revealed an underlying text in
Syriac from the 6th century, constituting the most complete surviving copy
of an original book by Galen.
This text was erased and written over in the 11th century.
Thanks to modern
imaging and digital processing techniques, scientists and scholars have
uncovered and studied the Roman physician’s original text over the past decade.
Eventually, this precious evidence will be added to the existing
high-resolution images made available online by the Schoenberg Institute for
Manuscript Studies at the University
of Pennsylvania Libraries.
This institution is collecting leaves from the same Syriac
manuscript that made their way to different locations, such as the libraries at
Harvard University,
Paris,
and the Vatican,
to name just a few.
The intention is to digitally reconstruct Galen’s book. This is a
long-term project considering it takes about ten hours to scan one single page.
Only when these complex scans are completed the research team will be able to
start analyzing the words and thoughts of this great physician to fit them in
the context of the pages that are kept elsewhere.
He was born in Pergamon,
where he studied, and he completed his education in 
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