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.