On Medicine

...should have been, and therefore he would have most aptly inserted here: quam Graeci χιτῶνα vocant which the Greeks call a chiton/tunic. Therefore, I have determined to elicit what our author wrote in each place, and in this manner, I have attempted to expel from Celsus’s context everything that openly bears the appearance of a gloss—a task which Targa had already begun to undertake before me with sufficient frequency. Furthermore, I shall propose several places where I strongly suspect Greek words have been introduced from elsewhere, with arguments appended as to why I feel this way.

These glosses are certainly old enough, since they are exhibited both by the Vatican codex, which was written in the 10th century, and the Florentine, which is from the 12th, and the Parisian no. 7028, which is from the 11th. If I am not mistaken, they owe their origin to the 7th, 8th, or 9th century and proceeded from those Latin literary exercises whose masters knew the Greek language at least well enough to be able to translate Greek books into Latin in whatever manner possible, or to corrupt the vernacular speech by sprinkling in foreign words, so much so that the margins of the codices were the final refuge of an erudition that was already considered useless by most, and which carried with it nothing but the study of obsolete thingsoriginal: *) Quum permultos codices inde a saec. VII usque ad XII exaratos tractaverim, satis compertum habeo quanta ostentatione latinos libros transcribentes graece loqui tentent hujus aetatis librarii. (Since I have handled very many codices written from the 7th to the 12th century, I have sufficiently discovered with how much ostentation the scribes of this age, transcribing Latin books, attempt to speak Greek.).

Beyond these Greek glosses, with which the Celsian work is stuffed, it contains an even much larger quantity of Latin glosses, and finally, additions and interpretations of every kind. Targa cut away some of those additions in their entiretyoriginal: **) Ex. gr.: p. 33 l. 1: quando sane ad sanitatem venit, post finitur; — 72, 15: et quae tertio libro, cet., post nuclei; cf. Adn. crit.; — 147, 20: quod χολικόν nominatur, post verbum comparatum; — 203, 23: quod sit scrupulorum III. S. (I), post vocem laser; — 309, 11 super vesicae cervicem, post verbum incidi. (For example: p. 33, line 1: "when it truly comes to health," after "is finished"; — 72, 15: "and those which [are] in the third book, etc.," after "kernels"; see Critical Notes; — 147, 20: "which is called cholicon," after the word "prepared"; — 203, 23: "which is of 3.5 scruples," after the word "laser" [asafoetida]; — 309, 11 "upon the neck of the bladder," after the word "cut."); however, he was satisfied to enclose the greatest part in brackets. But in this matter, he used too much caution; indeed, I myself, although I have freely deleted many things that seemed superfluous, now see that I have not provided everything that could have been provided; for the long-term use of Celsian speech now forbids me from receiving into my edition—without adding an obelisk—a rather large number of passages regarding whose genuine origin Targa was partly in doubt and partly had no suspicion at all.