Arpan K. Banerjee
Solihull, England

Galen was born in 129 AD in Pergamon, an important Greco-Roman city of the Hellenistic period in Asia Minor. Today the remnants and ruins of this ancient city are sited in Bergama, a city in northwest Turkey. Galen started learning his medical craft in Pergamon while simultaneously attending lectures in philosophy. He traveled widely in search of the best anatomy teachers of his day and spent time in Smyrna, Crete, Cyprus, and Alexandria, the last of which boasted one of the finest libraries of the ancient world. In the Roman Empire, dissection of humans was forbidden, and Galen instead studied many dead animals to understand anatomy. He dissected apes and then switched to pigs reasoning, that animal anatomy would be similar to human anatomy. He discovered that arteries carry blood.

He experienced the Antonine plague outbreak in Rome in 166 AD and returned to Pergamon. He became physician to the gladiators and was a skilled surgeon, successfully attending to fractures and wounds. Two years later, he returned to work in Rome, becoming physician to Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Galen and Hippocrates are both considered the greatest physicians of antiquity. Galen’s influence on medical practice was immense and lasted until the Renaissance, when his supremacy and teachings began to be challenged.

In this work of outstanding scholarship, Singer has compiled in one volume his translated versions of Galen’s medical, philosophical, and autobiographical writings, originally written in Greek. Singer collates these writings of Galen with a very useful, erudite introduction and explanatory notes throughout the text.

The excellent introduction brings us into Galen’s life, work, and place in medical history, as well as a chronology of his life. This leads on to Galen’s writings on a wide range of topics. Galen wrote on anatomy, physiology, surgical procedures, prognosis, and therapeutics,as well as writing about diet, exercise, and healthy lifestyles almost a millennium before these ideas became fashionable. One of his works included the important book On the Pulse for Beginners. His scientific writings ranged from The Art of Medicine (an important summary of his teachings and the basis of medical curricula worldwide for several centuries) to The Best Doctor is Also a Philosopher and The Best Method of Instruction. Galen’s philosophical works include the autobiographical My Own Books with discussions on Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus and other philosophers of that era. The volume concludes with Galen’s writings on the soul: The Soul’s Dependence on the Body and Affections and Errors of the Soul. These writings are as relevant today as when they were first penned, and all interested in the human condition will find something of interest in this scholarly, yet very readable tome.

Particularly useful for the reader is the index of brief descriptions of people mentioned in the text. The bibliography will be useful to researchers in the field, and its index is comprehensive. Singer is to be congratulated on this magisterial scholarly volume about one of the most important medical figures of the last millennium.

Galen: An Anthology
Translated by P.N. Singer, Oxford University Press, 2025
ISBN 9780190641405