The Prefaces to the First Humanist Medical Translations

Abstract

A large part of the literary production of humanist physicians consists of Latin translations of Greek medical texts. They considered these translations the first and necessary approach to ancient Greek medicine, which in turn was viewed as having ensured scientific and therapeutical progress against the barbarisms of dominant Arabic medical culture. In a passage from a work entitledDe Plinii et plurium aliorum medicorum in medicina erroribus, the humanist physician Nicolò Leoniceno (1428–1524), who taught for sixty years at the University of Ferrara, attacks Avicenna's doctrine as chaotic, obscure, and dangerous to life. He then presents his own medical program, which is first of all based on translations: “Nos sane ad hanc amovendam atque extirpandam et nostrae aetatis hominibus lucem aliquam veritatis aperiendam, partim librorum Galeni medicorum principis translationibus, partim in eosdem commentationibus, die noctuque laboramus.” Leoniceno was actually a prolific translator of Galen.