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Galen

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Roman physician and medical theorist Galen.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Roman physician and medical theorist Galen. The most celebrated doctor in the ancient world, Galen was Greek by birth but spent most of his career in Rome, where he was personal physician to three Emperors. He was one of the most prolific authors of his age, and a sixth of all surviving ancient literature in Greek was written by him. Celebrated in his own lifetime, he was regarded as the preeminent medical authority for centuries after his death, both in the Arab world and in medieval Europe. It was only the discoveries of Renaissance science which removed Galen from his dominant position in the pantheon of medicine.

With:

Vivian Nutton
Emeritus Professor of the History of Medicine at University College London

Helen King
Professor of Classical Studies at the Open University

Caroline Petit
Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Classics at the University of Warwick

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Available now

42 minutes

Last on

Thu 10 Oct 2013 21:30

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

READING LIST:

Galen (trans. I. Johnston and G. H. R. Horsley), On the Method of Healing (Loeb Classical Library, 2011)

Galen (trans. P. N. Singer), Selected Works (Oxford Classics, 1997)

Galen (trans. V. Nutton) On Prognosis (Akademie-Verlag, 2013)

R. J. Hankinson, Cambridge Companion to Galen (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

S. Mattern, Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing (Baltimore, 2008)

S. Mattern, The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire (Oxford University Press, 2013)

V. Nutton, Ancient Medicine (Routledge, 2012)

O. Temkin, Galenism: Rise and Decline of a Medical Philosophy (Cornell University Press, 1973)

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Melvyn Bragg
Interviewed Guest Vivian Nutton
Interviewed Guest Helen King
Interviewed Guest Caroline Petit
Producer Thomas Morris

Broadcasts

  • Thu 10 Oct 2013 09:00
  • Thu 10 Oct 2013 21:30

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