On Medicine

7028*) This codex had never been examined before, even though Dr. Des Étangs perused it; he nevertheless neglected to note the variation of the reading. It is truly to be lamented that it contains only shreds or selected passages from Celsus, even though the quantity of these shreds is much greater than one could gather from the notice of the royal library catalog. The manner in which these fragments succeed one another lacks all order, and furthermore, some are torn away from other chapters and joined to others. Although it exhibits the same lacunae as the codices containing the complete books of Celsus, these shreds are nonetheless to be highly valued; I have extracted various readings from all doubtful places with the greatest care. The Bodleian codex 724 (Laud. E 55) was written in the 14th century. It contains only the part of the Celsian work that concerns surgery, and it generally agrees with codices of lower quality. which must manifestly be added to the same family as the two former ones. There is hardly any need for me to advise that the context of Celsian speech should be established by these three codices, since it contains many more excellent readings than the others and is disfigured by many fewer errors. Targa, who examined the two former ones, seems to have performed his duty well enough; nevertheless, it is of great importance that they be inspected again, applying all that accuracy and caution which learned men of our age are accustomed to expend on these matters (concerning which matter you should see especially the learned Roth in his excellent preface to Suetonius). Nor am I destitute of all hope that I might someday obtain a new collation of these codices, completed with all the care needed today. The remaining codices, not excluding the Parisian 6864, are to be referred to the 15th or 16th century**) Indeed, some seem to have been transcribed from printed books. Since the renewal of the study of letters in the 15th century, Celsus has had many readers; throughout the entire Middle Ages, however, he lay almost rejected. It may also be affirmed that this writer was given over to oblivion as soon as he had written his work; so great was the authority of Greek medicine among the Romans during the reign of the emperors; even with the nature of things favoring it, it persisted... [text cut off in original], and the scribes who copied these codices...