On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato, Vol. I

Emperor Frederick II in the year 1224 after the birth of Christ, by which he decreed that "masters should teach the authentic books, both Hippocratic and Galenic, in the schools, in both theoretical and practical medicine"7. Hence, their books were either translated into Latin anew or illustrated with commentaries, and the booklets that the learned composed in those times concerning the medical art were adapted primarily to their doctrine. Those who practiced medicine in the schools of Naples, Bologna, Montpellier, Paris, and others followed the same reasoning. Therefore, in these schools, Galen shared the kingdom with Hippocrates. But not long after that partnership was dissolved, Galen began to reign alone, and this from the time when the writings of the Arabs concerning philosophy, physics, and medicine flowed into European nations, having been translated into Latin. It was not a thin stream of these disciplines that flowed in from the Arabs, but a most abundant river. The result was that, just as Aristotle did in philosophy, so Galen attained the greatest authority of all in medicine. For although the Arabs placed no small effort into the other prince of physicians, Hippocrates, by translating and explaining his books in Arabic, it is established that they attributed much more labor and study to Galen8. For beyond the fact that he uses a style of speaking that is diffuse and abundant beyond necessity, which greatly pleased the Arab nation9, the very structure of the doctrine he transmitted in his books captured their minds and held them captivated. For they seemed to see that Galen had so comprehended everything that Hippocrates and the physicians who flourished after him had taught concerning the individual parts of medicine, that he had corrected and perfected whatever had been observed incorrectly or left imperfect by them; wherefore they did not think it necessary to busy themselves more diligently with those things that had already been treated by their predecessors as being less cultivated.

7) Cf. Salvatore de Renzi, Coll. Sal. I, 315.
8) Cf. Wenrich, Commentary on the Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, and Persian Versions and Commentaries of Greek Authors (Leipzig, 1842), p. 241 sqq.
9) Daremberg correctly notes: "The vastness of the literary baggage and a certain inflation of a diffuse style did not contribute a little to Galen’s success among the Arabs." (History of the Medical Sciences, Paris 1870, Vol. I, p. 208, note 1.)