On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato, Vol. I

Editor's Preface.

What I promised two years ago, I have now fulfilled in such a way that I send forth the first volume of my edition of Galen's books On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato, which contains the critical Prolegomena preliminary critical studies, the very words of the writer, critical annotations, and a Latin translation. Although I seem to have omitted almost nothing in all these matters to satisfy the expectations of scholars, a fear nevertheless sometimes enters my mind that my strength may have been insufficient for such a great labor as the new recension of that work requires. For first of all, the variety of the subjects themselves which Galen treats is not only very great, but their insolence and novelty, far removed from ordinary philological studies, created not a few difficulties for one preparing an edition; and why do I say "not a few"? Indeed, they are such that they might seem almost insurmountable. For who, to leave aside the matters that pertain to physics and the medical art, would trust that they could easily untangle those numerous passages which Galen brought forth from the books of Chrysippus, Posidonius, and other Stoics? Galen himself complains that he did not sufficiently understand the discourse of Chrysippus. It is added that for various reasons, about which I have spoken both in two academic programs and in the Prolegomena of this edition, the text itself has come down to our age in very many places in a most corrupted state, defiled by both open and hidden faults; and if anyone were to perceive them all, he would truly be a Lynceus a mythological figure with exceptionally keen eyesight to me. Nor is it sufficient to perceive what is transmitted incorrectly,