Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2012, Pages 307–315
Structures and Strategies in Ancient Greek and Roman Technical Writing
And to end on a poetic note: Galen’s authorial strategies in the pharmacological books
- Open Access funded by Wellcome Trust
- Under a Creative Commons license
Open Access
Abstract
This
paper examines the authorial strategies deployed by Galen in his two
main pharmacological treatises devoted to compound remedies: Composition of Medicines according to Types and Composition of Medicines according to Places.
Some of Galen’s methods of self assertion (use of the first person;
writing of prefaces) are conventional. Others have not received much
attention from scholars. Thus, here, I examine Galen’s borrowing of his
sources’ ‘I’; his use of the phrase ‘in these words’; and his recourse
to Damocrates’ verse to conclude pharmacological books. I argue that
Galen’s authorial persona is very different from that of the modern
author as defined by Roland Barthes. Galen imitates and impersonates his
pharmacological sources. This re-enactment becomes a way to gain
experience (peira) of remedies and guarantees their efficacy.
Keywords
- Galen;
- Pharmacology;
- Compilation;
- Authority;
- Authorship;
- peira
