Chapter 9 Reading Galen in Byzantium : The fate of Therapeutics to Glaucon

Abstract

In this chapter, I shall focus on the Galenic corpus, whose dissemination in the Byzantine world was widespread and influential; in particular, I have chosen to examine the various revivals of Galen’s Therapeutics to Glaucon, which was copied widely. A number of authors produced commentaries based on this treatise and some were invariably influenced by it in composing their own works throughout the Byzantine era (AD 330–1453).4 My study is not exhaustive, but rather I shall select specific examples of interest from the various forms of evidence. First, I shall provide some basic introductory details on Galen’s Therapeutics to Glaucon, followed by a section on its circulation and textual transmission in Byzantium. Then, I shall go on to discuss its revival by Byzantine medical authors into two further sections; the first focuses on commentaries and the second deals with medical handbooks.