A hidden translation of an important early medical textbook has been reassembled after pages were found around the world. The text is by Galen, considered to be one of the fathers of medicine, who died in 200 AD.
The book was brought back together with the help of Grigory Kessel, a German expert on ancient Syriac writing who noticed that a rare book he was examining in Baltimore in 2013 was a match for a single page that he had seen at a library at Harvard University a few weeks earlier. He started to look for more missing pages around the world. The last one was found in Paris in May. One page was in a monastery in Egypt that has the world's oldest continuously operating library. Three pages were in the Vatican in Rome and one in the National Library of France.
The pages are part of "On the Mixtures and Powers of Simple Drugs" by the Greek/Roman physician and philosopher Galen, an early book on pharmaceuticals. Galen's book was once one of the main textbooks used in medical schools around the world. It contains ancient knowledge of medicines, patient care, and medicinal plants. There are many existing copies of the Galen book, but all were made more recently and newer versions may have significant changes.
This version was probably made in the ninth century AD. It is a copy of the Galen book that had been translated from the Greek into Syriac, a version of Aramaic, by Sergius of Reshaina.
Many of the pages are what are called palimpsests, which are old sheets of parchment that were written on and then covered over by newer writing. The pages were overwritten about a thousand years ago by hymns. As an old hymnal, the book has historic value, but the original medical undertext is what has fascinated scholars.
Scientists can photograph each page at very high resolution and with various types of light and color. Computer algorithms can then exploit variations in grooves in the parchment and inks to make the undertext visible.
Galen's medicinal knowledge is not in line with modern medicine. He still operated under the belief that all disease was caused by imbalances between the "humors" of the body. However, he was one of the most advanced medical thinkers of his time.
