Harley MS 5425, ff 141r-174r

A Latin paraphrase of the first three books (lacking Book 4) of the treatise on general precepts of medical pathology by Hippocrates of Kos (460-375 BC), accompanied by a commentary attributed to Galen (c. 130-200). In the upper and lower margins, alongside the paraphrase and the commentary, a later hand has copied the translation of the original from Arabic sources that is variously attributed to Constantinus Africanus (c. 1020-1098/9) and therefore to the late 11th century, or to Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114-1187) and therefore to the mid-12th century: see Kibre 1985, pp. 5-7 and O'Boyle 1998, pp. 103-104.

Rubric (f. 141r): 'Incipit commenta Galieni supra regimine acutorum'; paraphrase of text by Hippocrates, incipit (f. 141r): 'Illi qui sententias de Absidis relatas scripserunt in esse quod / scripserunt', explicit (f. 173v): 'uti ea in istis tantum. gratia'; Galen's commentary incipit (f. 141r): 'Galienus: Non solum scripserunt reme/morationem', explicit (f. 174r): 'eas omnis preter quod infirmus / ipsas ei dicat', followed by colophon written by a different hand 'Explicit commentum Galeni super liber de toto […] / egritudinum gloriosissimi Ypocratis […/ ] / fallacia sensus que super fluv[….] / medici sententie sunt arct[....]'. The beginning of each particula or book is marked by a marginal note of a contemporary reader (ff. 150v, 162v); original text added in the margin, incipit (f. 141r): 'Qui de egrotancium accidentibus in singulis egritu[dini]bus tractantes', explicit (f. 173v): 'sed illis aliquando conveniens est'.

For the translation of the main text, see also L. Thorndike and P. Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, The Mediaeval Academy of America Publication, 29 (London, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968), pp. 1205k, 1215n, 1695k, and its electronic version on CD-ROM (Ann Arbor, MI, 2000), nos. 1205K, 1215N, and 1695K; for Gerard's paraphrase of the main text see Thorndike and Kibre 1963;1965 and 1968, p. 660a, and the electronic version on CD-ROM, 2000, no. 660A; for Galen's commentary, see Thorndike and Kibre 1965, 1968, p. 922i, and the electronic version on CD-ROM, 2000, no. 922I; see also R. J. Durling, 'Corrigenda and Addenda to Diels' Galenica', I, Traditio, 23 (1967), 461-76 (p. 476), and II, Traditio, 37 (1981), 373-81 (p. 381). First printed at Padua by Nicolaus Petri circa 1476: 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. 295 no. 160a). For Hippocrates's original Greek text with English translation, see Hippocrates, ed. by W. H. S. Jones, Loeb Classical Library, 150 (Cambridge, Mass., 1931), II, pp. 57-125; for Galen's commentary, see K. G. Kühn, Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia (Leipzig, 1821; repr. Hildesheim 1964), XIX, pp. 182-221.