On the Usefulness of the Parts, Vol. II

[Leonicenus'] name is inscribed on fol. 122; furthermore, on fol. 121 it reads: "No. VIII of the fifth chest, no. 8, Galen on the members of men." That the Aldine edition was derived from this codex manuscript appears not only from the fact that the context of the words, such as the Aldine provides, agrees with it in almost all places, but also because even now those marks occur here and there in the codex, which typothetae typesetters are accustomed to use to signify the end of a page or folio; for example, after the word ὄνυχος nail on p. 10, 9, there is a straight line in the codex, with which word the first folio of the Aldine ends; likewise, after the word ταῦτα these things on p. 19, 23, a similar line was drawn, by which the end of the second folio might be noted, and so very often.

Although this codex manuscript was the foundation for those who prepared the editio princeps first printed edition, it has nevertheless been re-examined by me not without fruit. For there are not lacking places where the good writing of the codex was overlooked by Aldus or his associates, for example, the codex correctly exhibits p. 44, 6 δέ γε at least/but indeed, 47, 15 τὴν the, 70, 22 γ’ at least (particle), 25 διαφωνοῦμεν we disagree, 92, 13 ἡ σύνθεσις the synthesis/composition, 94, 10 ἀπήγαγε led away, 121, 21 προσπαραθεῖναι to place alongside, 122, 26 μελῶν of members, 140, 9 διπλοῦν double, 141, 18 ὡς ὁ παρελθὼν as the one passed, 150, 5 ἐκτείνειν τε and to extend, 179, 8 αὐτῶν of them, 182, 22 μείζονι greater, 23 ἐλάττονι lesser, 26 μηδὲ nor, 183, 13 ἅπασιν for all.

However, in quality it is much inferior to the others. And first, it is depraved by that kind of error which is brought about by the omission of many words. For very often the scribe, deceived by the similarity of the letters, wandered from one word to another, omitting what lies between them. Examples of such negligence exist on p. 196, 21; 241, 9; 343, 11; 363, 25; 372, 26; 455, 3; 474, 1; 485, 20. But that lacuna gap/missing text of much greater scope, by which a large part of the seventh book was consumed from p. 394, 4 "of the belly" up to p. 422, 10 "of the heart," seems to have already been in the archetypus original manuscript/master copy. It was supplied by Caius Britannus from some codex or other in the edition of various works of Galen, which he brought out at Basel in the year 1544. Furthermore, it suffers from any other kind of error, by which drowsy scribes are accustomed to err, so that in very many places it departs from the others that have preserved the true reading. The examples are: