Harley MS 3748, ff 190v-208r

The Latin translation from Arabic sources by Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114-1187) of Galen's treatise on the balance among the complexiones, i.e. the various parts of the human body, and the relationship between humoral balance and health. In the manuscript tradition the text was entitled De temperamentis or De complexionibus.

Rubric (f. 190v): 'Incipit liber Galieni. de com/plextione', incipit: 'Summe que / sunt in sermone primo', explicit (f. 208r): 'ante diximus in medicinis ipsis / explicit liber Galieni. de complectione'. The text is divided into 3 books, beginning respectively on ff. 190v, 196r, 203v. For the Latin text see L. Thorndike and P. Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, rev. edn. (London, 1963), p. 752a, and its electronic version, no. 752A; R. J. Durling, 'Corrigenda and addenda to Diels' Galenica', I: 'Codices vaticani', Traditio, 23 (1967), 461-76 (p. 472, no. 114a); Luis García-Ballester, 'The New Galen: A Challenge to Latin Galenism in Thirteenth-Century Montpellier', in Galen and Galenism (Aldershot-Burlington, Vermont, 2002), V, pp. 68, 81 and passim.

First printed at Venice on 27 Aug. 1490 by Philippus Pincius: for references to the edition see item 1 above, and Richard J. Durling, 'A Chronological Census of Renaissance Editions and Translations of Galen', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 24 (1961), 230-305 (p. 291 no. 114a); For the Greek text, see Kühn, C. Galeni Opera Omnia (Leipzig 1821-1833; repr. Hildesheim, 1964), pp. 509-71.