Galen: On Simple Drugs in Syriac Translation. Processed images and digital-born critical edition

The digital outputs of the AHRC-funded project The Syriac Galen Palimpsest  based at the University of Manchester from 2015 to 2020 are now available. Our multidisciplinary team used cutting-edge imaging techniques to recover the erased text from a unique manuscript and restore a valuable witness to the scientific heritage of the Syriac Christian world.

The dataset, which is accessible in Open Access, includes a critical edition of Books 6–9 of Galen’s On Simple Drugs, presented in PDF, RTF, and Mellel formats, along with processed images of the manuscript. Further information on our editorial approach will be published in the forthcoming volume The Syriac Galen Palimpsest: A New Paradigm for Cross-Disciplinary Research (Proceedings of the British Academy), stemming from the project’s international British Academy Conference held in 2019. Consult the files on Figshare.

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Open Access Publication : New Light on Old Manuscripts: Recent Advances in Palimpsest Studies

book-cover, naima afif, article, publication, author, scientific

New publication: Naima Afif, Peter E. Pormann, William I. Sellers, Natalia Smelova, Siam Bhayro, “GalenQt. A New Software Tool for Recovering Lost Text and its Use for the Reconstruction of the Lacuna in Galen’s Simple Drugs, Book 8”, in C. Rapp, J. Gruskova, G. Kessel, G. Rossetto (eds), New Light on Old Manuscripts: Recent Advances in Palimpsest Studies, Veröffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna, 2023, p. 441–463.

 

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Publication : Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences

naima afif, research, publication, Syriac, history of sciences, manuscripts New publication: Naima Afif, Peter E. Pormann, William I. Sellers, Natalia Smelova, Siam Bhayro, « The Syriac Text of Book Nine of On Simple Drugs. New Evidence from the Syriac Galen Palimpsest » in Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences (Galen’s Treatise On Simple Drugs: Interpretation and Transmission), 70/184-185, 2020, pp. 130-149. Access through the publisher’s website.

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Exhibition ‘Seeing the invisible’

naima afif, Syriac, exhibition, John Rylands, Library, Manchester

Discover how our research team at the University of Manchester is uncovering the lost heritage of Syriac Christians through the exhibition ‘Seeing the Invisible’.

Curated by Professor Peter Pormann and Dr Natalia Smelova, the  exhibition will run from October 2019 to March 2020 at the John Rylands Library and will display the Syriac Galen palimpsest for the first time in the UK.

For more information, see here.

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British Academy Conference ‘Exploring the Syriac Galen Palimpsest’

 

The Syriac Galen Palimpsest is an exceptional manuscript containing the Syriac translation of a pharmacological treatise by Galen. Our team at the University of Manchester is organising a two-day conference under the auspices of the British Academy. This conference will gather scientists and humanities scholars who will discuss the methods employed to decipher the palimpsest and the contribution of Eastern Christians in the history of medicine.

More details: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/exploring-syriac-galen-palimpsest-ancient-drugs-synchrotron-radiation/

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Publication in Le Muséon

Our latest paper in now published:

A. Afif, S. Bhayro, P. E. Pormann, W. I. Sellers, N. Smelova, « On Digamma and the Armenian Earth », in Le Muséon, 131 (2018), p. 391-414.

Abstract:

The treatise On the Mixture and Power of Simple Drugs (Περὶ κράσεως καὶ δυνάμεως τῶν ἁπλῶν φαρμάκων) by Galen of Pergamum (129-216) is transmitted in a number of Greek manuscripts, and was translated into Syriac and Arabic. One Greek manuscript, Vatican Urbinas gr. 67, contains a passage from book IX about digamma and ‘Armenian earth’, not transmitted in the majority of Greek manuscripts and not included in the standard Greek edition by Kühn (1826). Galen called ‘Armenian earth’ a mineral that probably was orpiment, although the exact identification remains problematic. We now present a critical edition of the Syriac translation of part of this passage on the basis of the Syriac Galen Palimpsest; discuss the historic use of digamma; and explore the importance of Galen’s attestation of Armenian words.

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Collaboration with the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Photo: RB Toth Associates

Our team at the University of Manchester had the great opportunity to collaborate with the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory . The aim was to perform rapid-scan X-ray fluorescence (XRF) imaging of several folios from the Syriac Galen Palimpsest which were so far unreadable. The initiative has received press coverage in the US like here in Newsweek. Read more about the X-ray imaging of the palimpsest on the SLAC website.

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#Présentation Keynote : Rome 2017

Le support de mon intervention à Rome concernant le neuvième livre du traité Sur les médicaments simples dans le palimpseste syriaque de Galien (SGP) est accessible via Slideshare.

Trois points principaux sont abordés:

  • l’étendue du livre neuf dans le palimpseste;
  • la structure et la mise en page du texte ;
  • le contenu conservé dans le palimpseste qui n’est pas présent dans le texte grec transmis par l’édition de Kühn.

 

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Journée d’étude sur la pharmacologie ancienne

L’université de Warwick organise un workshop international sur la pharmacologie ancienne, la transmission et la réception du traité de Galien Sur les médicaments simples à la British School de Rome ce vendredi 27 septembre 2017.

Lors de cette journée, je présenterai les derniers résultats du SGP Project sur le livre IX en syriaque.

Pour toute information complémentaire, visitez le site de l’université.

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