Medicina Antiqua::Ancient Medicine::Introductory Bibliography

Greek and Roman Medicine
An Introductory Bibliography for Graduate Students in Classics

Prepared by
Lee T. Pearcy
The Episcopal Academy
Merion, Pennsylvania 19066, USA

I. Bibliographical aids II. Ancient sources III. General surveys

IV. Collections of essays V. The Hippocratic Corpus VI. Galen

VII. Other medical authors VIII. Noteworthy special studies

I. Bibliographical aids
K.-D. Fischer. "Ancient Veterinary Medicine. A Survey of Greek and Latin Sources and Some Recent Scholarship." Medizinhistorisches Journal 23(1988), 191-209.
H. Leitner. Bibliography to the Ancient Medical Authors. Vienna, 1973.

"Supplements to Leitner" appear regularly in the Newsletter of the Society for Ancient Medicine (known from 1986-1989 as the Society for Ancient Medicine and Pharmacy), ISSN 1074-9724. Beginning with No. 21(1993) the Newsletter is called The Society for Ancient Medicine Review.
"Leitner" and the "Supplements" are indispensable guides in the wilderness.

G. Sabbah, P.-P. Corsetti, K.-D. Fischer. Bibliographie des textes médicaux latins, antiquité et haut moyen age. Saint-Etienne, 1987.
G. Maloney, R. Savoie. Cinq cent ans de bibliographie hippocratique (1473-1982). Quebec, 1982.
S. Byl, "Les dix dernières années (1983-1992) de la recherche hippocratique," Lettre d'Information Centre Jean-Palerne 22(1993), 1-39.

Bibliographies and reviews of the literature appear regularly in the Lettre d'Information of the Centre Jean-Palerne, Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, ISSN 0-995-5887.

Some periodicals little known to classicists:
Gesnerus
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Isis
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Sudhoff's Archive
Literature and Medicine
Isis produces a periodic "Critical Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences."
The National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, publishes an annual Bibliography of the History of Medicine.
II. Ancient Sources

The texts of ancient medical authors, including Galen and Hippocrates, are published in the ongoing series Corpus Medicorum Graecorum or CMG (with its Supplementum and Supplementum Orientale for some texts in Arabic and other languages) and Corpus Medicorum Latinorum or CML. A list of CMG and CML volumes to 1987 appears in SAM Newsletter No. 15(1987), 11-16. Information about the current status of the series has recently (1998) been posted on the WWW at http://www.bbaw.de/vh/cmg/ueber.html.
The Budé series continues to add volumes to its Hippocrates, most recently De l'ancienne médecine, ed. J. Jouanna (1990). The Loeb Hippocrates now (1997) has 8 volumes, and more may be added.

Some important recent editions:
E. J. and Ludwig Edelstein, Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies, Introduction (1998) by Gary B. Ferngren. Baltimore, 2 vols., 1945 repr. in 1 vol. 1998.

The fundamental collection of ancient evidence for the mythology, cult, iconography, therapeutic practice, and other aspects of Asclepius.

Caelii Aureliani Celerum Passionum libri III, Tardanum Passionum libri V (Caelius Aurelianus, Akute Krankheiten, Buch I-III. Chronische Krankheiten, Buch I-V, ed. G. Bendz, tr. Ingeborg Pape. Teil I: Akute Krankheiten I-III, Chronische Krankheiten I-II. CML VI.1. Berlin, 1990.
Erasistrati Fragmenta, ed. I Garofalo. Pisa, 1988.
D. Furley and J. Wilkie. Galen On Respiration and the Arteries. Princeton, 1984.
R. J. Hankinson, Galen: On the Therapeutic Method I and II. Oxford, 1991.
A. Z. Iskandar. Galen: On Examinations by Which the Best Physicians are Recognized. CMG, Suppl. Orient. IV. Berlin, 1988.
H. von Staden. Herophilus: The Art of Medicine in Early Alexandria. Cambridge, 1989.

An important work, including the fragments of Herophilus as well as much about ancient medicine in general, and Alexandrian medicine in particular.

W. Smith. Hippocrates: Pseudepigraphic Writings. Leiden, 1990.
III. General Surveys
J. André. Etre médecin à Rome. Paris, 1987.
Hellmut Flashar, ed. Antike Medizin. Darmstadt, 1971.
M. D. Grmek. Diseases in the Ancient Greek World. Baltimore, 1988 (= Les Maladies à l'aube de la civilisation occidentale, Paris, 1983).

An exemplary study of paleopathology.

M.D.Grmek. Storia del pensiero medico occidentale. Vol. I:Antechità e medioevo. Roma-Bari, 1993
M.D. Grmek. Western Medical Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Cambridge, Mass. 1999.

English translation of the above.

R. Jackson. Doctors and Disease in the Roman Empire. London, 1988.
E. D. Phillips. Greek Medicine: Philosophy and Medicine from Alcmaeon to the Alexandrians. London, 1973 (= Aspects of Greek Medicine, New York, 1973).
J. Longrigg. Greek Rational Medicine: Philosophy and Medicine from Alcmaeon to the Alexandrians. London, 1993.
J. Scarborough. "Medicine," 1227-1248 in Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome, edd. M. Grant and R. Kitzinger. New York, 1988.
______, Roman Medicine. Ithaca, 1969 repr. 1976.

Dated in some details by now, but still worth reading. A new edition is said to be in preparation (1995).

H. E. Sigerist. A History of Medicine. 2 vols. New York, 1951 repr. Oxford, 1987.
B. Vitrac. Médicine et philosophie au temps d'Hippocrate. Vincennes, 1989.
IV. Collections of Essays
R. J. Hankinson, ed. Method, Medicine, and Metaphysics. Special issue of Apeiron 22(1988).
W. Haase, ed. Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (ANRW), II.37.1: Wissenschaften (Medizin und Biologie). Berlin and New York, 1993.
V. Nutton. From Democedes to Harvey: Studies in the History of Medicine. London, 1988.
______, ed. Galen: Problems and Prospects. London, 1981.
P. Potter, G. Maloney, J. Desautels, edd. La Maladie et les maladies dans la collection hippocratique: Actes du Ve colloque international hippocratique. Québec, 1990.
Ph. J. van der Eijk, H.F.J. Horstmanshoff, P. H. Schrijvers, edd. Ancient Medicine in its Socio-Cultural Context. Amsterdam and Atlanta, 1995 = Clio Medica 27 and 28.
Renate Wittern, Pierre Pellegrin, edd. Hippokratische Medizin und antike Philosophie. VIII. Int. Hippokrateskolloquium. Hildesheim, 1996.
V. The Hippocratic Corpus
Émile Littre, ed. Oeuvres Complètes d'Hippocrate. 10 vols. Paris, 1844 repr. Amsterdam, 1962.

Still the standard edition; includes French translation and a useful index.

P. Potter. Short Handbook of Hippocratic Medicine. Québec, 1988.
V. Langholf. Medical Theories in Hippocrates, Early Texts and the Epidemics. New York, 1990.
VI. Galen
K.-G. Kühn, ed. Galeni Opera Omnia. 20 vols. Leipzig, 1821-33 repr. Hildesheim, 1964-65.

Still the only modern edition of nearly all Galen's works. To be used only when nothing better is available--and all too often, nothing is.

G. Bowersock, "Galen," 59-75 in Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire. Oxford, 1969.
R. J. Durling, A Dictionary of Medical Terms in Galen. Leiden, 1993.
P. Moraux. Galien de Pergame. Souvenirs d'un Médecin. Paris, 1985.
G. Sarton. Galen of Pergamum. Lawrence, Kansas, 1954.

To be used with caution.

J. Scarborough, "Galen Redivivus: An Essay Review," JHMAS 43(1988), 313-321.
______, "The Galenic Question," Sudhoffs Archiv 65(1981), 1-31.
VII. Other Medical Authors
J. T. Vallance. The Lost Theory of Asclepiades of Bithynia. Oxford, 1990.
H. von Staden, "Jaeger's 'Skandalon der historischen Vernunft': Diocles, Aristotle, and Theophrastus," in Werner Jaeger Reconsidered: Proceedings of the Second Oldfather Conference, ed. William M. Calder III (=Illinois Classical Studies, Supplement 3, Atlanta, 1992), 227-265.
VIII. Noteworthy Special Studies
L. A. Dean-Jones, Women's Bodies in Classical Greek Science. Oxford, 1994.
R. Flemming, Medicine and the Making of Roman Women: Gender, Nature, and Authority from Celsus to Galen. Oxford, 2000.

An important work, which contains much more than the main title suggests.

H. Grensemann, Knidische Medizin Teil II: Versuch einer weiteren Analyse der schicht A in den pseudohippodratischen Schriften De natura muliebri und De muliebribus I und II. Stuttgart, 1987.
C. Harris, The Heart and the Vascular System in Ancient Greek Medicine. Oxford, 1973.
G. Majno. The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World. Cambridge, Mass., 1975.
Müri, Walter. Der Arzt im Altertum. Munich/Zurich 1986.
J. Scarborough, "The Myth of Lead Poisoning among the Romans: An Essay Review," JHMAS 39(1984), 469-475.

The notion of pandemic lead poisoning among the Romans of the high empire lingers in popular thought, despite this refutation.

W. Smith, "Notes on Ancient Medical Historiography," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 63(1989), 73-109.
______, The Hippocratic Tradition. Ithaca, 1979

Bibliographies
Selected as a Key Resource by Links²Go, 7/23/98.

Last updated 2/6/02. Comments and suggestions will be gratefully received by Lee T. Pearcy.

I. Bibliographical aids	II. Ancient sources	III. General surveys
IV. Collections of essays	V. The Hippocratic Corpus	VI. Galen
VII. Other medical authors	VIII. Noteworthy special studies

Greek and Roman Medicine An Introductory Bibliography for Graduate Students in Classics

Bibliographies and reviews of the literature appear regularly in the Lettre d'Information of the Centre Jean-Palerne, Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, ISSN 0-995-5887.

Some important recent editions: E. J. and Ludwig Edelstein, Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies, Introduction (1998) by Gary B. Ferngren. Baltimore, 2 vols., 1945 repr. in 1 vol. 1998.

The fundamental collection of ancient evidence for the mythology, cult, iconography, therapeutic practice, and other aspects of Asclepius.

An important work, including the fragments of Herophilus as well as much about ancient medicine in general, and Alexandrian medicine in particular.

An exemplary study of paleopathology.

M.D.Grmek. Storia del pensiero medico occidentale. Vol. I:Antechità e medioevo. Roma-Bari, 1993 M.D. Grmek. Western Medical Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Cambridge, Mass. 1999.

English translation of the above.

Dated in some details by now, but still worth reading. A new edition is said to be in preparation (1995).

Still the standard edition; includes French translation and a useful index.

P. Potter. Short Handbook of Hippocratic Medicine. Québec, 1988. V. Langholf. Medical Theories in Hippocrates, Early Texts and the Epidemics. New York, 1990. VI. Galen K.-G. Kühn, ed. Galeni Opera Omnia. 20 vols. Leipzig, 1821-33 repr. Hildesheim, 1964-65.

Still the only modern edition of nearly all Galen's works. To be used only when nothing better is available--and all too often, nothing is.

G. Bowersock, "Galen," 59-75 in Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire. Oxford, 1969. R. J. Durling, A Dictionary of Medical Terms in Galen. Leiden, 1993. P. Moraux. Galien de Pergame. Souvenirs d'un Médecin. Paris, 1985. G. Sarton. Galen of Pergamum. Lawrence, Kansas, 1954.

To be used with caution.

An important work, which contains much more than the main title suggests.

The notion of pandemic lead poisoning among the Romans of the high empire lingers in popular thought, despite this refutation.

W. Smith, "Notes on Ancient Medical Historiography," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 63(1989), 73-109. ______, The Hippocratic Tradition. Ithaca, 1979

Bibliographies Selected as a Key Resource by Links2Go, 7/23/98. Last updated 2/6/02. Comments and suggestions will be gratefully received by Lee T. Pearcy.

Selected as a Key Resource by Links2Go, 7/23/98.

Greek and Roman Medicine
An Introductory Bibliography for Graduate Students in Classics

Some important recent editions:
E. J. and Ludwig Edelstein, Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies, Introduction (1998) by Gary B. Ferngren. Baltimore, 2 vols., 1945 repr. in 1 vol. 1998.

M.D.Grmek. Storia del pensiero medico occidentale. Vol. I:Antechità e medioevo. Roma-Bari, 1993
M.D. Grmek. Western Medical Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Cambridge, Mass. 1999.

P. Potter. Short Handbook of Hippocratic Medicine. Québec, 1988.
V. Langholf. Medical Theories in Hippocrates, Early Texts and the Epidemics. New York, 1990.
VI. Galen
K.-G. Kühn, ed. Galeni Opera Omnia. 20 vols. Leipzig, 1821-33 repr. Hildesheim, 1964-65.

G. Bowersock, "Galen," 59-75 in Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire. Oxford, 1969.
R. J. Durling, A Dictionary of Medical Terms in Galen. Leiden, 1993.
P. Moraux. Galien de Pergame. Souvenirs d'un Médecin. Paris, 1985.
G. Sarton. Galen of Pergamum. Lawrence, Kansas, 1954.

W. Smith, "Notes on Ancient Medical Historiography," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 63(1989), 73-109.
______, The Hippocratic Tradition. Ithaca, 1979

Bibliographies
Selected as a Key Resource by Links²Go, 7/23/98.

Last updated 2/6/02. Comments and suggestions will be gratefully received by Lee T. Pearcy.

Selected as a Key Resource by Links²Go, 7/23/98.