Galen of Pergamum is principally famous for his works on anatomy, medicine and moral philosophy. He is also noted for his acerbic temperament, his affirmations of his own brilliance and his denigration of the education, morals and lifestyle of his medical opponents and of anyone who viewed differently the things that he held dear. On his arrival in Rome he used a variety of techniques reminiscent of those used by the sophists in order to establish his place amongst the social and intellectual elite both as a physician and as a philosopher. At this and later points in his career his rhetoric emphasised the quality of his Greek education which included a thorough grounding in mathematics. He also appealed to his philosophic lifestyle and to his social connections in Rome in order to differentiate himself from the general run of doctors and to promote his own agenda. In this dissertation I examine his writings with the object of testing the validity of Galen’s claims in these areas and, in the process, to come to a deeper understanding the social and intellectual environments that formed him and with which he interacted. Special attention is given to his literary and rhetorical education and his knowledge of the exact sciences. One consequence of studying his training in rhetoric was the reconstruction of a rhetorical template which, though of a kind possibly mentioned in passing by Quintilian, is not to be found in any of the extant manuals on rhetoric. In the matter of the exact sciences particular consideration is given to his knowledge of geometry and the construction of sundials, as his views on these subjects form the foundation to his approach to philosophical and medical knowledge. Thus a substantial section is devoted to the manner in which Galen could have gained his certainty in these matters. ¶ Galen's rhetoric also makes much of his family's social status and his personal relationship to the royal court. These matters are examined in relationship to our present knowledge of Greek society and the familia Caesaris at the time. A consequence of this latter enquiry was some insights into the work habits of Marcus Aurelius. ¶ Galen not only wished to be known as Rome's leading physician and anatomist but also as one who practised the philosophic lifestyle. The background to Galen's decision in this last matter is assessed together with an examination of passages that while suggesting that much of his language and sentiment was a reflection of Platonic values also show that his commitment to a life of asceticism was real. ¶ What also emerges in this study is that there was considerable tension between the world in which he wished to live and the world as it was. This shows especially in his aggressive rejection of the salutatio and other Roman social conventions, his frustration at the early reception of his medical theories and teaching, and his desire to sustain the educated koine Greek of his homeland against the social pressures which were attempting to restrict educated Greek to the dialect and vocabulary of ancient Attica.

Pr.--K. humanistisches Gymnasium in Ansbach für das Schuljahr 1904/5-1907/8.

Galen’s theory of black bile is strongly influenced by his aim to bring together a wide range of material from the work of different physicians and philosophers that begins with Hippocrates. This has caused there to be a large amount of inconsistencies in his writing on black bile. There has been a tendency in modern scholarship either to try to resolve these inconsistencies or to ignore them completely. In many cases there has been an emphasis on the definition of black bile in the Hippocratic On the Nature of Man as the most important basis for understanding Galen’s characterisation of black bile. My analysis will challenge this assumption concerning the dominance of On the Nature of Man for Galen’s use of black bile in his explanation of health and disease in the body. I shall show that an investigation of the way that Galen characterises the physical properties and function of black bile reveals that it is better to understand his use of this humour in terms of his attempt to bring material from a wide range of authorities together to support the arguments that he presents in his treatises. Galen defines black bile as three distinct types of substance that differ in physical properties in order to account for the different ways that this humour is characterised and defined in the various medical sources that he draws upon. However, he is unable to produce a theory of black bile without inconsistencies relating to a number of issues that include such factors as his naming of the different forms of black bile and his concept of authenticity of texts in the Hippocratic Corpus. Galen’s strategy is to make his audience believe that there is a comprehensive and well-defined theory of black bile that originates in the work of Hippocrates and was followed by certain physicians and philosophers afterwards. But in reality this is just a façade and Galen defines and uses black bile in many different and inconsistent ways for his arguments and refutations that cannot always be reconciled with the content of his sources.

Neoclassical Medicine: Transformations in the / History of Science

Inaug.-Diss.--Berlin. / "Lebenslauf".

Thesis (M.A.I.S.)--Oregon State University, 2004. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-144). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Cette thèse se base sur trois fonds principaux : les Archives Secrètes de Vatican, les Archives épiscopales de Münster et les Archives municipales de Münster. Mgr von Galen s’est heurté de front au nazisme dès son élection comme évêque de Münster en 1933 et jusqu’en 1945. Il s’est opposé au néo-paganisme raciste du régime hitlérien et n’a cessé de dénoncer la propagande antichrétienne nazie, tentant d’immuniser ses fidèles contre l’idéologie officielle du Sang et du Sol. Il a combattu également contre les projets scolaires nazis, le programme d’euthanasie, l’eugénisme, les persécutions contre la presse et les opposants, etc. Toutefois, il a soutenu en partie la politique étrangère du Troisième Reich. En tant qu’évêque, il a eu le soutien de Rome et de Pacelli/Pie XII. Au sein de l’épiscopat allemand, il s’est opposé avec Mgr Preysing, évêque de Berlin, à la politique de prudence du Cardinal Bertram, Président de la Conférence épiscopale allemande de Fulda. Galen n’a cessé d’appeler ses confrères à dénoncer publiquement le régime nazi. Contrairement à l’historiographie récente au sujet de Galen, il a été mis en évidence que Galen ne fut nullement un apôtre de la démocratie et un défenseur des droits de l’homme. Antilibéral, traditionnaliste, patriote, réactionnaire, anticommuniste, Galen fut un antidémocrate de droite voire d’extrême-droite, qui s’est opposé autant au nazisme qu’au retour de la démocratie en Allemagne en 1945 et à la politique des Anglo-Américains. On ne saurait donc le présenter comme un antinazi de tendance libérale. Toute sa vie, Galen fut un antimoderne au sens philosophique et théologique. / This thesis is based on three main funds: the Vatican Secret Archives, the Episcopal Archives of Münster and the Municipal Archives of Münster.Bishop von Galen was struck head-on Nazism upon his election as bishop of Münster in 1933 and until 1945. He opposed the racist neo-paganism of Hitler's regime and has repeatedly denounced anti-Christian Nazi propaganda, trying to immunize his followers against the official ideology of blood and soil. He also fought against the Nazis school projects, the program of euthanasia, eugenics, the persecutions against the press and opponents, etc. However, he argued in part the foreign policy of the Third Reich.As bishop, he had the support of Rome and Pacelli / Pius XII. Within the German episcopate, he clashed with Bishop Preysing, bishop of Berlin, the prudent policy of Cardinal Bertram, President of the German Bishops' Conference of Fulda. Galen has repeatedly called on his colleagues to publicly denounce the Nazi regime.Contrary to recent historiography about Galen, it was revealed that Galen was not an apostle of democracy and defender of human rights. Anti-liberal, traditionalist, patriotic, reactionary, anti-democrat, Galen was a right or extreme right, who opposed the return of democracy in Germany in 1945 and the policy of the Anglo-Americans . We therefore can not present it as an anti-Nazi liberal bent. All his life, Galen was an anti-modern philosophical and theological meaning.

La présente thèse est composée de l’édition et de la traduction annotée des livres I et II, d’un traité du médecin grec ancien Galien, traité connu sous son intitulé latin De Placitis Hippocratis et Platonis. Elle comporte également la traduction annotée, mais sans travail d’édition, du livre III du même traité. / The present doctoral thesis comprises the edition and French annotated translation of the first and second books of greek physician Galen’s treatise known under the Latin title De Placitis Hippocratis et Platonis. It also includes the annotated translation alone of the same treatise’s third book.

This project asserts that in works by Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, John Donne and Aemilia Lanyer, early modern knowledge of Galenic brain physiology is an essential part of Renaissance formulations of identity. As the accepted residence of the soul, the Galenic brain is a place where important questions about subjectivity can be addressed, and my project reads references to the brain in early modern literature as confluences of anatomical knowledge and Christian theories of spiritual identity. These readings uncover a more nuanced picture of the early modern subject as a complex union of flesh and spirit. I begin with an in depth overview of the legacy of Renaissance Galenism. I then read Galenic brain theories that are influential in the early modern texts in my study. This discussion progresses through my reading of the reconciliation of Galenic medicine with Christian doctrine that occurs over several centuries. Chapter two is a focused analysis of how Edmund Spenser constructs the character of Prince Arthur as a compromise between current medical and Christian ideas. I argue that in a critically popular passage in Book II of Spenser's Faerie Queene, contemporary theories of the brain ventricles contribute to a anatomical definition of Christian temperance and that attempts to account for the complexity of Prince Arthur's behavior. In chapter three, I read Richard's famous prison speech in act 5, scene 5 of Richard II as a theory of his cognition, or the process by which his behavior becomes manifest, and I argue that this reveals the interdependent relationship between early modern personality and the physical body it inhabits. In my chapter on John Donne's poem "The Crosse," I argue that Donne deliberately departs from accepted anatomies of the cranial sutures in order to assert spiritual causation that maintains and disciplines the passions. Finally, in my concluding chapter on Aemilia Lanyer's Salve Deus Rex Judeaeorum, I argue that Lanyer constructs a female brain that requires the masculine dominance of God's grace in a highly sexualized relationship, and that her model mirrors patriarchal physiological models of women.

Galen's Avoiding Distress provides an opportunity for scholars to qualify Galen's philosophical eclecticism because his ἄσκησις to avoid distress intersects theory and practice. My thesis carefully analyzes the theoretical framework behind Galen's claim that he “trained his φαντασἰαι for the loss of all his possessions” as well as the specific practices that constitute this training regimen. I trace the concept of φαντασἰα back to the first philosophical discussions in Plato's Theaetetus-Sophist structure and Aristotle's De anima to answer the questions “What are the φαντασἰαι that he talks about?” and “How do they participate in cognition?” I analyze Galen's On the doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato, Affections and Errors, and Thrasybulus to identify Galen's specific practices and relate them to what Galen thinks is the purpose of all humans. My inquiry allows me to argue that while Galen uses his imagination to condition himself not to fear the atrocities of Commodus he subordinates emotional tranquility and practices that promote it to the greater goal of doing good deeds for others.