P R E F A C E.

Therefore, following the example of Caesar, who stood at the Rubicon for some time, uncertain whether he should cross the river or not, and suddenly exclaimed: "Let the die be cast!" original Latin: "Jacta alea esto!" This refers to the famous crossing of the Rubicon by Julius Caesar in 49 BC, signifying a point of no return. and ordered his army to cross, I have approached the labor of managing this edition with a stout heart.

I hope that those who know me well will clear me of the charge of rashness, as if I had not carefully weighed the difficulty of the task or had placed a burden on my shoulders that they are unable to carry. If anyone understands, I certainly do, what can be expected and even demanded of a new editor of Galen. Since Galen’s works have been greatly damaged by the passage of time, a new editor must first search the treasures of public libraries. This is necessary to find more complete copies that might fill the gaps lacunae: gaps or missing sections in a manuscript text that disfigure his works, or to find the original Greek text for those writings that currently only exist in Latin translations. Furthermore, the text of Galen found in existing editions is often corrupted. This occurred through the ignorance of scribes or through their excessive efforts to correct things they did not understand. Kühn refers to "hyper-correction" where a scribe, thinking he has found an error, changes the text and inadvertently introduces a new mistake.