On Medical Matters

...how much the one differs from the other. For Strabo wrote his distinguished work with this primary intention: that, while delighting the minds of his readers, he might set forth clearly all those things that seemed likely to bring some utility to the wise regulation of life. Therefore, he did not neglect the passages of ancient poets, especially Homer, by which he thought something would be illustrated; he also frequently digressed from the order to relate ancient myths and theologoumena theological discussions: into these he mixed various arguments and philosophical questions, so as to render his commentaries equally sweet and useful.

On the other hand, Dioscorides, valuing pleasure almost at nothing, excuses himself in the preface, stating that he has paid regard not so much to eloquence or stylistic charm as to gravity and dignity. Therefore, intent upon the subjects themselves, he almost neglects his diction just as he does his order. The arrangement of the entire treatise is, in fact, arbitrary: in individual medicines, he is accustomed to touch upon the natural history immediately, then to pass on to the efficacy; yet he often follows an inverted order. Nor does he observe this in enumerating the powers or effects: for similar things and those coherent by nature are separated, while those that are clearly different are joined together.

The style of writing itself may be accused of negligence; yet, with few exceptions, there are not as many soloecisms grammatical errors or cilicisms local linguistic corruptions to be found as those that Origen and Jerome seemed to think they had found in the epistles of Paul the Apostle, a contemporary, whom—I know not if with sufficient skill—Balthasar Stolberg endeavored to refute. Galen, otherwise a great praiser of Dioscorides, nevertheless criticizes him because he did not understand the meanings of Greek names. With what right this was done, I have explained in Book II, Chapter 94, page 218.

27) The book concerning the soloecisms of the New Testament and the cilicisms of Paul. Wittenberg, 1681, quarto.