The Venetian editions of Galen of the second half of 16th century as a source of information on the history of medicine
Keywords:
history of medicine, history of science books, early printed books, bibliological analysis, GalenAbstract
Galen's legacy has been understood as part of both the formation of the general concept of the history of natural sciences and the history of philosophy. In this context, there is a need for a new analysis of Galen's scientific legacy and his observations, particularly in terms of the impact of his works on the formation and distribution of European science.
There are two ways to gauge the prevalence of certain medical works from the 12th to the 17th centuries: by analyzing the number of published books by different authors or by studying the works of a particular author through their later translations and annotated editions. The second method is applied to the two editions of the complete works of Galen in the Latin translation, issued by the heirs of the Venetian publisher Luca Antonio Giunti in 1565 and 1609.
A comparative analysis of these two editions of Galen leads to the conclusion that interest in his scientific heritage in the 16th and 17th centuries was not only high but also spurred the search for and publication of works absent in the first edition. In 44 years, more than 20 new texts were introduced into scientific use, and an index was compiled for the entire collection of works. The team of translators and commentators consisted of more than 20 scientists from different European countries. Given sufficient materials for comparison, such bibliographic analysis techniques allow for an accurate description of the state of research in a particular historical period.
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