On the Usefulness of the Parts, Vol. II

books, it corrupted the text in many places and corrected it in very few. The Kuehnian edition (vol. III, IV) depends on this one; the person who prepared it, neglecting the Aldine and Basel editions, happily healed some places by conjecture.

Regarding the emendation of the text as it had been published in the Aldine edition, no one has deserved better than Janus Cornarius of Zwickau (died in 1558). He inscribed a vast mass of corrections or conjectures on the margin of the Aldine edition, which, after his death, arrived in the library of the University of Jena, using the Latin version of Nicolaus. It was through the generosity of the Jena librarians, who kindly sent me a copy of that edition upon my request, that I could learn of his emendations.

No one, therefore, after those who curated the first edition, used a codex to restore the text. Whence it happened that even today the work of Galen is falsely inscribed On the Use of the Parts in the Human Body. But that the author himself inscribed nothing but On the Use of the Parts is demonstrated by nearly countless places where he praises his own work; cf. vol. I 409, 619. II 15, 92, 139, 182, 203, 217, 234, 271, 285, 291, 415, 420, 443, 548, 549, 568, 571, 591, 616, 880. IV 394, 611, 613, 643, 685, 686, 694. V 196, 209, 538, 540, 610, 647, 659. VI 64. VII 90, 91, 675. IX 843. X 118, 122. XV 310, 361, 391. XVII 1, 454. XVII 2, 213, 243. XVIII 2, 73, 619, 709, 927. XIX 15, 19, 20. The better codices ABLU confirm this habit of the writer. In one place, the form of the title that inferior codices and editions prefer is found, XV 276 ("it has been shown in those books on the use of the parts in the human body"), but I would believe that passage to be spurious for other reasons as well.

Otherwise, it is manifest that the words "in the human body," instilled into the true title for the sake of explanation, were taken from the beginning of the second book.

Having set these things forth, nothing remains now but to offer public thanks to the Munich Academy, by whose munificence I was helped in preparing this edition.