Ed.: H. Wagner, Galeni qui fertur Libellus ΕΙ ΖΩΙΟΝ ΤΟ ΚΑΤΑ ΓΑΣΤPΟΣ (1914); C.M. Colucci,
Galeno, se ciò che è nell’ utero è un essere vivente (1971).
PTK
Gale ̄n, pseudo, Definitiones Medicinales (100 – 150 CE)
The text attributed to G in several Byzantine MSS (Diels 1 [1905] 111; S. [1908] 36),
under the title Oroi Iatrikoi (Medical Definitions), contains 487 medical definitions. Gale ̄n does
not include it in On My Own Works. Not strictly limited to medical science, it includes all disci-
plines integrated into medicine and its doxographies, as well as topics related to its history.
The treatise proceeds methodically from the notion of definition itself (1), the concept of
medicine (9), the parts of medicine (10–11), and different philosophical approaches with
their methods (14); the definition of man (17), and the elements of physiology (18), and
anatomy (24), including the humors (65–69). Among the physiological processes analyzed
(95), pulse and the cardio-vascular system receive much attention (110). Senses are studied
(116), as are memory (124) and sleep (127). The concept of health (129) and disease (133)
open a new section, devoted to pathology, including the causes (154–163) and signs of
diseases (164). Treated at length are fevers (185), cardiac movement (205) and pulse
(208–233). The Definitions then addresses all types of diseases; general (phrenitis 234), those of
the nose (252), mouth and throat (204), and respiratory system (258), heart (265) and bile
(266), digestive system (267), liver and gall bladder (274), dropsy (279), the bladder (283)
and urine (284), and joint diseases (290). After skin diseases (295), the author analyzes
gynecology (299). The Definitions seem to start again, with pathologies of hair (306), skin and
skin pigmentation (315), and wounds, eyes and sight (340), pathologies of the nose (370),
skin (373), swellings of all kinds (384), gangrenous and similar wounds (392), abnormal
anatomical excrescences (396), including genital (413) and anal (419). After some definitions
of skin diseases (436), the author discusses generative organs and their possible troubles
(439), generation, obstetrics, and newborn care (443), including abnormalities. He ends with
hemorrhages (460) and evacuations (462), followed by some 24 definitions, perhaps add-
itions to the collection.
Wellmann dates the work to the late 1st c. CE, and attributes it to the Pneumaticist
school (1865: 66). Its explanation of the cardio-vascular system, pulse, fever and its types,
and its use of purgations, are Pneumaticist, as is the only personage quoted by name in
the definitions dealing with Roman-imperial medical schools (12–17), A. The
work, however, also contains elements of other contemporary medico-philosophical schools
(cf. A A), and need not be ascribed to known Pneumaticists. The
treatise reflects rather the medical milieu of the 1st c. CE, and likely dates to the early
2nd c. (cf. -G, I). Fragments of a similar text were introduced
into pseudo-S, Isagoge or Quaestiones medicinales (BTML S.1: 30).
The Definitions, translated into Arabic at some point, are mentioned by H.unayn ibn Ish.a ̄q
(808– 873 CE, Ullmann 1970: 38; GAS 3 [1970] 138–139). A new Latin translation was
published in 1528 in Paris by a Johannes Philologus (tentatively identified as Johann Gunther
von Andernach, i.e., Johannes Guinterius, 1505–1574), while the Greek text was not printed
before 1537 (Basel).
Ed.: 19.346–462 Kühn; V. Rose, Anecdota graeca et graecolatina 2 (1870) 241–280.
M. Wellmann (1895) 65–104; RE 7.1 (1910) 590, J. Mewaldt; Kollesch (1967); Kudlien (1968) 1101;
Kollesch (1973); Idem, “Eine hippokratische Krankheitseinteilung in den pseudo-Galenischen
GALE ̄N, PSEUDO, DEFINITIONES MEDICINALES