New Light on Ancient Medicine
Audio
Panel discussion held on 17 May 2011 (venue: The British Academy). Since 2000, new discoveries have radically changed the traditional picture of medicine as practised in ancient Greece and Rome. Archaeological finds have provided new contexts for ancient healing, and the Vlatadon MS has brought to light new Greek texts of the ancient doctor, Galen of Pergamum, 129-c.216, which have wider implications for the transmission of ancient medicine and philosophy. Studies of medieval Arabic or Latin translations have also revealed new or forgotten treatises from the period of the Roman Empire, which in turn often discuss much earlier Greek writings that are otherwise lost. A project to edit some 60 unpublished papyri from Greco-Roman Egypt also shows how ancient doctors applied their theoretical learning. The speakers will discuss some of the most important of these new finds, including new material on the Hippocratic Oath.
