Word Doctors

Two general works may be of interest:

Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World, edited by Paul Keyser and John Scarborough (released yesterday according to Google Books). In addition to Greco-Roman science and medicine, the first part has broad coverage of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China.

The Cambridge Companion to Hippocrates, edited by Peter Pormann. The Cambridge site now gives October 2018 as the “expected online publication date.” There have been [forthcoming] references to chapters in this collection by, e.g., Chiara Thumiger and Brooke Holmes, though the contents do not seem to be up yet on the Cambridge site.

I had no idea so much work had already been done on Scribonius Largus, given their being no full length English translation yet, until I started an entry for it yesterday in Texts & Translations. Ianto Jocks (University of Glasgow), whose Ph.D dissertation will be the first translation and commentary in English as I’ve discovered, was kind enough to provide me with many helpful citations. For those interested in ancient pharmacology, this will be a treat!

 

For those who are interested in the text of the Geoponica, a new article by Carl Scardino has just come out in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies entitled, “Editing the Geoponica: The Arabic Evidence and its Importance.” I have not had a chance to read it yet, but look forward to doing so. One still wonders when we will receive an update from Rodgers as to his promised critical edition of the Greek text?

 

Recently, I stumbled across the series Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum, which helpfully collects bibliographical material on medieval/renaissance translations and commentaries of various ancient texts. I will be incorporating “CTC” entries from now on into the Text and Translations page when entries are available. I’ve just added links to Paul of Aegina and Theophrastus.

In other news, my entry in Texts and Translations for the Geoponica has become quite robust. It’s become somewhat of a commonplace in reference encyclopedias (and even peer reviewed articles) to simply claim that no modern translation of the Geoponica exists. My entry clearly shows that’s in no way the case. May it be of use to you!

 

I’ve had the Geoponica on my mind lately as I’m tracking down bibliography for a seminar paper on Late Antique Agronomy. While reading through Dalby’s translation, I was struck in particular by 2.19.1, a supposed excerpt from an otherwise unknown “Sotion.” The Greek (from Beckh) reads:

Ἐπίγραψον ἐν τῷ ἀρότρῳ φρυήλ, καὶ ἐν τῷ νεάζειν καὶ ἐν τῷ σπείρειν τὴν γῆν, καὶ εὐθαλήσει ἡ χώρα.

Dalby transliterates φρυήλ as “Phyrel” without comment, while other commentators suggest that it’s some sort of acrostic that’s not clear. Having had a brief stint with Hebrew (which I unfortunately can no longer read), though, I immediately suspected “-el” was something to do with a Hebrew name for God (El). H.J. Rose apparently caught this back in his 1933 article, “The Folklore of the Geoponica“, where Rose gives (at the suggestion of a colleague) פְריִאֵל phri El, “fruit of God.”

Always pays off to be a bibliographical pedant. Or at least most of the time?

 

Though still far from complete, the site has made progress in three facets:

• Portions of the Leitner bibliography are now surpassed and up to date–especially Oribasius, Rufus of Ephesus, and Aetius of Amida. Leitner and the Ancient Medical Society continuation will eventually be superceded (at the slow and steady speed of a busy graduate student, of course).
• There is now a resonably concise “research guide” up for Animals and Plants, ever the bane of the medical historian. More guides to come as I think of them. Suggestions or requests would be much appreciated!
• Aelius Promotus’ Dynameron is now up on the TLG! (Strangely, this text was said to remain unedited in the 4th edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary (2012), but there’s been an edition for well over a decade). Part of my intentions for this site, as I mentioned in my email to them, was to provide the wonderful folks at the TLG with an easier way to keep up with, shall we say, more obscure texts.