chapter 21

Galenic Pharmacology in the Middle Ages: Galen’s

On the Capacities of Simple Drugs and its Reception
between the Sixth and Fourteenth Century
Iolanda Ventura

1 Galen’s On the Capacities of Simple Drugs

Written during his second stay in Rome (from ad 169 onward), Galen’s On the
Capacities of Simple Drugs contains the bulk of Galenic theoretical and practi-
cal pharmacology.1 The work consists of eleven books, of which the first five
display, in a rather complicated structure and unclear fashion, the theoreti-
cal fundaments of Galenic pharmacology (e.g., the theory of the four quali-
ties, of complexio, the classification of simple remedies according to their light
or heavy nature, to their cooling or heating effects, to their connection to the
above-mentioned qualities, and to the intensity of their effects measured in
‘degrees’), whereas books 6–11 describe properties of simple remedies belong-
ing to the vegetal (books 6–8), mineral (book 9), and animal (books 10–11) world
by listing the same remedies in alphabetical order. The Greek text is only avail-
able in the largely insufficient edition included in Karl Gottlob Kühn’s Galeni
opera Omnia.2 Few Latin versions are accessible: apart from the text attached
by Kühn to its edition of the Greek original, we may refer to the ‘patchwork’
version conflating the incomplete Arabic-Latin translation of book 1–5 made
by Gerard of Cremona and, for books 6–11, the corresponding section of the
(otherwise complete) translation prepared by Niccolò da Reggio printed, for
the first time, in Venice in 1490.3 This version should represent, indeed, the
point of departure for any analysis of the late medieval reception of the Latin
On the Capacities of Simple Drugs, since it reflects the combination we can find
in some late manuscripts, and the main function performed by Niccolò’s trans-
lation, namely the integration of Gerard’s one. Later Renaissance editions,

1 On Galen’s pharmacology, see Debru (1997); Vogt (2008); Wilkins (2014). On ancient botany
and pharmacology, see Hardy and Totelin (2016); Gazzaniga (2014: 87–108). On ancient medi-
cine, see Nutton (2013b); Mazzini (1997).
2 Galen, SMT, ed. Kühn (1826) XI.379–892 and XII.1–377. On Kühn’s edition, cf. Nutton (2002).
3 Galen, SMT in Galeni Opera Omnia (ed. Bonardus, 1490), 2 vols, available at: www.muenchener
-digitalisierungszentrum.de (accessed 30 November 2017); SMT (Book 6, fols 37vb–99va).

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004394353_023

394 Ventura

which I have to leave aside in this chapter, have been inventoried by Richard
Durling, and, more recently, by Stefani Fortuna.4 Within these editions, we find
the translation of On the Capacities of Simple Drugs prepared and published by
Theodoricus Gerardus (Gaudanus), which is the one printed, in the revision
made by René Chartier, by Kühn, and studied by Irene Calà.5
Before we turn our attention to the work, we have to bear in mind that On
the Capacities of Simple Drugs is not the sole pharmacological work written
by Galen. On the contrary: Galen’s pharmacological library consists of several
works, among which we find the writings On the Composition of Drugs According
to Places divided into ten books,6 On the Composition of Drugs According to
Kind consisting of seven books (both works were written around ad 191–2,
and became part of a De compositione medicinarum),7 and On the Capacity of
Cleansing Drugs.8 Among the pharmacological writings of the Galenic cor-
pus, we should also include On Theriac to Piso and the On Antidotes;9 there
are two further works ascribed to Galen, that is On Theriac to Pamphilianus
and Whom to Purge, with which Cleansing Drugs, and When, but their author-
ship is doubtful.10 However, of all those works, only On the Capacities of Simple
Drugs was translated into Latin and enjoyed some success during the Middle
Ages; another work, the On the Composition of Drugs According to Places,
became available relatively late (that is, in 1335) through a Latin translation
produced by Niccolò da Reggio, but never achieved a considerable diffusion.
According to the Galeno latino database, only five manuscripts hand it down.11
More successful was, on the other side, the On the Capacity of Cleansing Drugs,

4 See Fortuna (Chapter 22) and Savino (Chapter 23) in this volume.
5 Calà (2013).
6 Galen, Comp. Med. Loc., ed. Kühn (1826–7) XII.378–1007 and XIII.1–361.
7 Comp. Med. Gen., ed. Kühn (1827) XIII.362–1058. According to McVaugh (1975: 13), the
work was rendered from the Arabic into Latin by an unknown translator and enjoyed a
very limited success under the title of Liber Katagenarum (incipit: ‘Inquit Galienus: iam
retuli alibi virtutes medicinarum simplicium’ [eThK 0748D]). It is transmitted, for exam-
ple, by the manuscripts Paris, BnF, lat. 6865 and Palatinus lat. 1310.
8 Galen, Purg. Med. Fac., ed. Kühn (1826) XI.323–342 = ed. Ehlert (1960).
9 Galen, Ther. Pis., ed. Kühn (1827) XIV.210–94 = ed. Boudon-Millot (2016); Galen, Ant., ed.
Kühn (1827) XIV.1–209.
10 Galen, Ther. Pamph., ed. Kühn (1827) XIV.295–310. Galen, Cath. Med. Purg., ed. Kühn (1826)
XI.343–56; the latter treatise is reproduced by Oribasios, Medical Collections, 8.23, ed.
Raeder (1928) 221.10–227.10.
11 Cf. Galeno latino, at www.galenolatino.com (accessed 11 December 2017). The manu-
scripts are: Cesena, Biblioteca Malatestiana, S.XXVII.4; Fermo, Biblioteca Comunale, MS
5; Vaticanus lat. 2387; Paris, BnF, n.a.l. 1365; Vendôme, BM, MS 108.