Ralph H. Major

Galen on Anatomical Procedures—The Later Books

The completion of the translation of Galen on Anatomical Procedures has been eagerly awaited since Singers translation of the first 9 books, which appeared in 1956. Now we have a full translation of this remarkable work. In his translation, Professor Singer employed the Latin version of Kuhn, published in 1821-1823. In the present work, Mr. Duckworth uses an Arabic translation of the original Greek version. A previous translation from Arabic into German of Books IX to XV was prepared by Max Simon in 1906 and translated into English but never published by Mr. Duckworth. This labor stimulated him to attack the Arabic version with the assistance of Dr. Lyons and Dr. Towers. The Arabic version was the work of the famous Arabic scholar and translator, Hunain ibn Ishaq of Baghdad (809-873 A.D.). We are told that Hunain as a youth studied in the school of Masawayh but irritated his master