Reading and Annotating Galen between 1515–1531: on some Latin Galen Editions in the Library of the Carmelites in Cracow

Abstract

Copies of early-printed books have been of interest to to-day’s collectors and researchers not only for their material aspects (names of publishers and places of printing, fonts and composition, number of known copies etc.), but also because they bear signs of their often erratic history following their publication. The path followed by a particular copy of an early-printed book is reflected in its general state as an object (for instance the state of its binding), but also in its internal aspect. On the pages of a copy of an early-printed book, annotations, drawings doodles or graphics testify to the intimate relationship that its owners entertained with it. To better understand how owners dealt with copies of the books they possessed, this paper examines the annotations found in copies of some books that belong to the Carmelite convent in Cracow. We hope to bring to the attention of scholars, copies of works of Galen housed in this library, and primarily to set a perspective on how books were read by cultured individuals of in the 16th century period. To do so, we analyse copies of the 1507 Venice edition of the Articella and a copy of Latin edition of Galien (Iuntae, Venice, 1531). We attempt to identify the intellectual perspectives from which cultured readers approached such texts in the 16th century.

Full text

Studia Ceranea 9, 2019, p.279–300
DOI: 10.18778/2084-140X.09.15
ISSN: 2084-140X
e-ISSN: 2449-8378
Magdalena Koźluk (Łódź)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7775-3594
R  A G  15151531:
  L G E   L
  C  C
Read with piety in Western Europe, and as much by great doctors as by minor
esculapes, Galen also knew his fortune in Eastern Europe. e purpose of
our paper is to expand the territory of the reception of the master of Pergamum
and to see how Galen was read and annotated in the period of interest from a little
known corpus, that of the copies of works of Galen preserved in the library of
the Carmelite convent of Cracow1.
Among all the valuable books that this library holds, we nd among others an
Articella of Venice from 15072 (including Liber Techni by Galen) and one edition
of Galen –the edition of Venice (1531)3. In order to arouse the interest of the
1 The Library of the Carmelite Convent in Cracow (Karmelicka Street 19) offers an incredible op-
portunity not only for a book historian but also for a medical historian. Located in the Piasek dis-
trict, within the convent itself, this library contains about twelve thousand antique prints. Of all the
collections in the convent, that of the Swiss doctor, Anton Schneeberger (1530–1581), has already
been the first approach of our part during the Journées d’histoire de la Médecine in Tours organized
by the French Society for the History of Medicine (18–20 May 2012). See M.K, S.S,
Une petite perle de Cracovie: la bibliothèque médicale d’Anton Scherberger (1530–1581), HSM 46, 4,
2012, p.441–452.
2 Articella, Venetiis: per Petrum Bergomensem de Quarengiis, 1507. (In hoc volumine parvo in quan-
titate, maximo in virtute continentur infrascripti codices. Liber hysagoge Joannitii. Liber Phylareti de
pulsibus. Liber Theophili de urinis. Jusjurandum Hypocratis. Liber pronosticorum Hypocratis. Liber
aphorismorum Hypocratis secundum antiquam translationem et novam pariter Theodori Gaze ele-
gantissimam. Collectio aphorismorum Hypocratis ad unamquamque egritudinem pertinentium. Liber
aphorismorum Damasceni. Flosculi in medicina ex Cor. Cel.extracti. Liber techni Galeni secundum an-
tiquam translationem et novam pariter elegantissimam. Textus duarum primarum fen primi Avicenne
in theorica. Textus fen quarte primi, et prime quarti in practica. Cantica Avicenne. Textus noni Alman-
soris de egritudinibus a capite usque ad pedes. Collecta Jacobi de Partibus in medicina pro anthomia).
See J.R.D, A Chronological Census of Renaissance Editions and Translations of Galen, JWCI
24, 3/4, 1961, p.251.
3 Claudii Galeni Pergameni, medicorum, post Hippocratem principis, haec opera, vol.V, Venetiis: in ae-
dibus Lucaeantonii Iuntae Florentini, 1531. On Giuntine edition between 1528–1533 see S.F-
, Galeno a Sarnano: le Giuntine del 1531 e del 1533, IMU 37, 1994, p.241–250.

Magdalena Koźluk
280
researchers for these copies of Galen’s works, we intend above all to shed some
light on their annotations and to sketch the phenomenon of scholarly reading
in the rst half of the sixteenth century, distinguishing between at least some of
the types of annotations found in the copies concerned
4
. We will try to see how the
educated reader of the time read Galen, by what intellectual paths he apprehended
classical medicine and which passages of the Galenic corpus particularly attracted
his attention.
Emphasizing and commenting at the margin
Let’s start with the rst copy, a composite volume made of two pieces: the Venetian
edition of an Articella (1507) a little enlarged because it contains more treatises
than the Articella canonical5 and Carmina urinarum iudiciis (Lyon, 1505)6.
e entire volume is richly annotated. We are particularly interested in the
multiple annotations found in the copy of the Liber Techni by Galen (Ars medici-
nalis). Let’s look at them closely because we have a rst category of annotations.
In the ‘tertia p [ar] libri I. Tegni Ga. [leni] corpore’, the annotator highlights the
sentence and adds in the margin his comment which is unfortunately dicult to
read. On the other hand, the sentence underlined in the text concerns the deni-
tion of the healthy body according to Galen: ‘propriam ipsius sani corporis essen-
tiam’ […] ‘ipsius propriam sani corporis qualitatem’ (picture1).
In order to put this annotation in the context of Galen’s thought, note that it
is in the Ars medicinalis where Galen7 is dealing with the nature of the bodies
(healthy, sick, neutral), explains how to understand, according to him, the nature
of the healthy body8. Let us just recall in this connection that the teacher of Per-
gamum distinguished in the nature of the healthy body two possibilities: the state
4 J.-M.C, Humanisme et culture de la note, RBNF 2, 1999, p.26–36.
5 As we see in the transcription of the title page, this volume consists in fact of treatises traditionally
integrated into the canonical Articella (Johannitius’ Isagoge, Filaret’s De pulsibus, Theophile’s Urinis,
Prognosis of Hippocrates, Aphorisms of Hippocrates (seven books translated by Theodore of Gaza),
aphorisms drawn from Hippocrates concerning acute diseases (Collectio aphorismorum Hypocra-
tis ad unamquamque egritudinem pertinentium) –note that in the canonical Articella there is also
the whole of the treatise of Regime of the acute diseases). Our copy also includes other titles, name-
ly: the aphorisms of Jean de Damascene, the Flosculi of Celse, the Liber Techni of Galen, the Ars parua
of Galen, the Liber Canonis Aboali Albinscei, Cantica Avicennae, the Nonus almansoris of Rhazes,
Summula Jacobi de Partibus collecta in medicina pro anthomia.
6 Carmina de urinarum iudicijs: edita ab excellentissimo domino magistro Egidio cum expositione et
commento magistri Gentilis de fulgineo noviter castigatis et pluribus in locis emendatis per magistrum
Avenantium de camerino artium et medicine professorem, Lugduni: per Franciscum Fradin, 1505.
7 For the French translation of Ars Medicinalis fragments, see Veronique Boudon’s translation
of her critical edition of Galen. See Galen, vol.II, Exhortation à la médecine. Art médical, trans. et
ed.V.B, Paris 2000 (cetera: G).
8 G, p.278.

281
Reading and Annotating Galen between 1515–1531…
of health present (‘eo tempore’) and the state of health given once and for all from
birth (‘quidem is semper’9). We may be mistaken, but we think that this frag-
ment attracted our annotator not only because of the denition of the dual nature
of health, but primarily because of the two notions used, namely the ‘essentia’ and
the ‘qualitas’, which refer in the original text to those of ‘eukrasia’ (well-balanced
temperature, good temperature) and ‘symmetria’ (correct proportion) –two basic
notions for the denition of health in the galenic thought.
Our annotator has marked this place not without a cause. Our translation is
that of Gerald of Cremona and of Laurentinus Laurentianus (Venice, 1506, as
is oen the case, this copy bares the alternative date of 1507)10. It is therefore the
rst translation of the Ars medicinalis into Latin. In all probability our annotator
who lived later, was acquainted with other Latin versions of the Ars medicinalis11,
as for instance the Latin translation of the Ars medicinalis by Nicolao Leoniceno
edited by Rabelais in Lyon (Gryphius, 1532, p.277)
12
, where the translator propos-
es the notion of ‘bona temperatura’ for ‘eukrasia’ and the notion of ‘commoderatio’
for ‘symmetria’, with their Greek equivalents marked by an asterisk at the margin.
In all probability, our annotator underlined the discrepancy between the transla-
tions he knew, a divergence which testies inter alia to the perplexity of the rst
translator (Gerald of Cremona and Laurentinus Laurentianus) and of the others
when faced with translating the concepts of ‘eukrasia’ and ‘symmetria’.
Let’s summarize. is peculiarity, apparently of a stylistic nature, reects at bot-
tom a great embarrassment of the time, that of a nomenclature in the making and,
more precisely, that of the precise application of the medical lexicon. Much has
already been said and written about the strategies of translating medical literature
and the linguistic problems faced by translators when the doctrines of the ancients
moved from the original cultural and linguistic milieu to the new one that col-
lected them –transmission. Medical knowledge from Greek to Arabic, from Greek
to Latin13, and from Latin to vernacular languages. But whatever the language,
9 For the explanation of this fragment of Galen’s text we refer to G, p.398–399, note 1.
10 See J.R.D, A Chronological Census…, p.251. We shall not consider here the issue of the
identity of the translator (Bartholomaeus of Salerno or an anonymous translator in southern Italy
ca. 1150). On this readers should refer to V.B, La translation antiqua de l’Art médical de Ga-
lien, [in:]Storia e ecdotica dei testi medici greci, ed.A.G, J.J, Napoli 1995, p.43–55
and to her edition of the Ars medica de Galien, Paris 2000, p.244–252; N.P, Sur les traces
d’une ancienne traduction latine de l’Ars medica, L 56, 1977, p.504–533; F.W, 13th Century Com-
mentaries on the Tegni: Bartholomaeus of Salerno and Others, [in:]L’Ars Medica (Tegni) de Galien.
Lectures antiques et médiévales, ed.N.P, Saint-Étienne 2008, p.127–168.
11 See S.F, The Latin Editions of Galen’s ‘Opera omnia’ (1490–1625) and their Prefaces, ESM
17, 2012, p.391–412.
12 Ars medicinalis, [in:] H, Hippocratis ac Galeni libri aliquot, ed.F.R, Lyons:
S. Gryphius, 1532–1533 (see J.R.D, A Chronological Census…, p.257).
13 Let’s just quote R.F, Ancients and Moderns in the Medical Sciences. From Hippocrates
to Harvey, Aldershot 2000; Les Voies de la science grecque. Études sur la transmission des textes

Magdalena Koźluk
282
a transmission of this type always posed problems such as those of linguistic con-
fusion, and of the search for equivalent terms. Without going into detail, we also
know that in order to avoid any misunderstanding, the authors were led to adopt
various strategies: they sought in particular to clarify the concepts through explan-
atory developments, and this oen by means of the paraphrase, which is also seen
in the case of our copy from Cracow.
Summarizing in the margin and commenting below the text
is type of reading is quite prevalent in our copy, in the case of the second and
third book of the Ars medicinalis which generally deal with signs. A rst annota-
tion occurs at the place where Galen deals with the bodies which are presently
unhealthy and about which it is necessary to establish a diagnosis, and thus to
carry out the analysis of the signs. e annotations begin when Galen begins his
demonstration and deals with a particular case, that of the unhealthy dispositions
of the brain.
e annotator proceeds in two stages in his reading: rst he points to the mar-
gin of the title of the section, as if he used it as a means of marking the passage,
and then inscribes his comment below the main text (picture2). e writing in the
margin remains easily readable (we see clearly enough: ‘signa [a] egritudinis cere-
bri’ (unhealthy dispositions of the brain), ‘signa [a] egritudinis cordis’ (unhealthy
heart), ‘signa [a] egritudinis contra naturam [h] epatis’ (unhealthy dispositions
of the liver to evolve against nature), [signa [a] egritudinis] ‘stchomachi’ (unhealthy
dispositions of the belly), ‘pectoris’ (unhealthy provisions of the thorax) ‘duo […]
dolores’ (two pains). On the other hand, the comments below the text are written
in lowercase barely visible so that the annotation seems almost a straight line.
As regards these, we can sometimes read, albeit with diculty, a few words
of the comments placed at the margin, as, for example, in book III. e passage
in the text is devoted to the visible signs of the good coction (picture3). Here we
read ‘manifest quidem digestionis signis sanorum sunt’ (signs that indicate a coc-
tion clearly visible are part of the healthy signs)14. Under this passage, the annota-
tor adds his commentary in which we can spot a few words: ‘ut urina… alba… livi-
da… frigoris… signa mortis’. is shows that the annotator evidently assimilated,
not without reason, the passage dealing with the visible signs of coction at uroscopy.
We know that indeed in the functioning of the body, the ancients distinguished
de l’Antiquité au dix-neuvième siècle, ed.D.J, Genève 1997; D. J, C. T-
 , Lexique de la langue scientifique. Astrologie, mathématiques, médecine, Paris 1997; V.N,
The Changing Language of Medicine, 1450–1550, [in:]Vocabulary of Teaching and Research Between
Middle Ages and Renaissance, ed.O.W, Turnhout 1995, p.184–198.
14 G, p.343.

283
Reading and Annotating Galen between 1515–1531…
four general coctions the results of which were visible at three stages of analysis:
rst in the excrement, then in the various humours and nally in the urine. e
precise examination of the urine and its qualities (color, substance (‘corpus uri-
nae’), temperature, deposit, etc.) thus made it possible to diagnose the disease.
Noting the essentials points
e text of the commentator sometimes takes in our Articella obviously more
amplitude. e notes appear in places where there is space (at the end of the
book, on the back of the title page etc.). All these notes although they may seem
relatively spontaneous (a note here, another there) nevertheless present in our
treatise, for our great satisfaction, a real coherence of thematic order, namely the
theme of the signs (picture4).
(Transcription)
nigra ut cornu prendit viridis et signat adustionem
vel livida et signat mortificationem
et extinctionem caloris naturalis
Livida ut plumbum
alba ut aqua purrissima
Lactea ut [serum lactis]
indigestionem significant omnes iste quattuor
Glauca ut cornu lucidum
Caropos ut vellus cameli
Pallida ut caro semicocta
Subpallida ea remissa colori
Citrinia ut color pomi citri[ni] principium digestionis significant
Subcitrinia ipsa remissa sed non perfecta [mediatam digestionem]
Ruf[f]a ut aurum purrisimum orientale
[Sub]ruf[f]a ut aurum impurum perfectam digestionem [significant]
Rubra ut crocus orientalis excessum digestionis
Subrubra ut crocus [h]ortulanus significant
Rubicunda ut sanguis purus
Subrubicunda ut sanguis aquosus
Caropos ut vinum nigrum [cf. inopos ut uinum nigrum]
Kianos ut purpura iste significant adustionem
Viridis ut caulis uiridis signat mortificationem
In his note the annotator scrupulously grouped the colors of the urine. On the
le (in red) is the catalog of colors which, to be clearly distinguished by the eye,
the one who scrutinizes them, are compared either with materials (for example
‘livida ut plumbum’, pale like a lead) or with fruits (e.g. ‘citrinia ut color pomi citri’,
yellow as a lemon) or liquids (e.g. ‘rubicunda ut sanguis purus’, red as pure blood).

Magdalena Koźluk
284
Right from time to time, there is a commentary that frames with small parentheses
of the chosen colors and explains what this or that color means: some therefore
mean perfect digestion (‘perfect digestion’), others rather a imperfect digestion
(‘sed non perfecte’), others excess digestion (‘excessum digestionis’) or even heart-
burn (‘ista signat adustionem’)15.
Note that this list of eighteen colors arranged in columns follows the canoni-
cal colors that are usually found systematized in the wheel of urine16, a popular
device used for diagnostic sometimes found in treatises of medicine17. Note also
that the color comparisons we nd in our list are the same as in other such wheels.
And as the edition in question does not feature a wheel of urine (despite the pres-
ence of eophile Protospatharios urine tract, Carmina de urinarum iudiciis),
our annotator has obviously scrupulously copied in one spot all the urine colors
in order to make use of his personal list to diagnose the disease.
Without multiplying the examples, let us add that the question of the colors of
the urine was one of the principal ones for our reader. us the following annota-
tion (picture5) testies to the concern to note carefully any shade of color. Some
colors of the previous list are here completed: for example (center of the photo)
‘lacteus ut serum lacti, ut aqua clara’, other colors are however added as (bottom
of the photo): ‘inopos ut color epatis and ut uinum nigrum’; ‘Albus is crystalline’
18
.
All annotations remain grouped and are linked by small parentheses. is organi-
zation gives them the character of notes.
In ancient medicine, the color of the urine does not only indicate the disease,
but it also characterizes each humoral type. Recall the canon: ‘a sanguine-urina
rubea; a colera-urina colore nimium citrinium; melancolia-glaucum; a egma-
album’. Also, during urine analysis, apart from the color, the physician had to take
into account the season of the year, the region, the age and the sex of the patient
19
.
15 Cf. S.Z, H. G, Die Harnfarbbezeichnungen im Fasciculus medicinae und ihre italieni-
schen und spanischen Übersetzungen, [in:]Farbe im Mittelalter. Materialität, Medialität, Semantik,
ed.I.B, A.S, Berlin 2011, p.974.
16 Examples of these are the wheels found in U. P, Epifanie medicorum, Nürnberg: Friedrich
Peypus for Ulrich Pinder, 1506, f° 5r°–5v° or in J. K, Fasciculus medicine; praxis tam chirurgis
quam etiam physicis maxime necessaria, Venetiae: Joannem Gregorii de Gregoriis fratres, 1522, f° v°.
17 For the history of the transmission of the important treatments of urine (the Peri ouron of Theo-
phile Protospatharios and the Liber uranarum of Isaac Israeli) we refer to L.M-B,
Uroscopie au Moyen-Âge. Lire dans un verre la nature de l’homme, Paris 2012, p.54–55. On the colour
techniques of this kind of works see S.K, Picturing the Book of Nature. Image, Text, and Ar-
gument in Sixteenth-Century Human Anatomy and Medical Botany, Chicago–London 2012, p.79–80.
18 On the enrichment of colors in uroscopy see L.M-B, L’uroscopie en vulgaire dans
l’occident médiéval: un tour d’horizon, [in:] Science translated. Latin and Vernacular translations
of Scientific Treatises in Medieval Europe, ed.M.G, P.D L, A.S, Leuven 2008,
p. 237–239.
19 Cf. A J Z , Graeciae Medici principis De urinis, Trajecti ad Rhenum:
ex officina Gysberti a Zyll, Bibliopolae, 1670, p.58–61.

285
Reading and Annotating Galen between 1515–1531…
Similarly, the correspondence between humours and moments of the day and the
night is apparent in the following annotation, which tends to systematize the pre-
dominance of moods according to the hours of the day and those of the night (pic-
ture6). us, the predominance of phlegm is: ‘ad prima hora usquam ad sextam’,
that of melancholy ‘a sexta usquam ad duodecimam’, that of blood ‘a duodecima
usquam ad 18 [decimam octava]’, that of anger nally ‘decima octava usquam ad1
[primam horam]’. Here the day (24hours) is divided into four groups of six hours,
each sixteen corresponding to a humoral type, which can not fail to surprise.
Because this division of time, which starts at 1o’clock and nishes at 6o’clock,
then lasts 6 hours and nishes at noon, etc., is out of step with the one sanctioned
in the tradition, in Vindician, for example, which divides well the day and the
night in six-hour sequences, but starting three hours earlier –or later: at 9o’clock
in the morning, at 3o’clock in the aernoon, and so on. It is also this division
that is repeated in the verses ‘Horae humorum’, widely propagated later by Flos
medicinae Scholae Salerni:
A nona noctis donec sit tertia lucis
Est dominans sanguis; sexque incurrentibus horis
Est dominans cholera, dum lucis nona sit hora;
post niger humor adest, donc sit terita noctis;
post hoc flegma, donec sit nona quietis20.
e concern to correctly diagnose and read the signs (the urine and its colors)
is also evident in the following annotation (picture7) concerning the correspon-
dence between the mood and the type of pulse: this is how the pulse ‘longus et
latus’ is specic to ‘sanguis’; ‘longus et strictus’ characterizes anger; ‘curtus et latus’
refers to phlegm; ‘curtus et strictus’, nally, is related to the melancholic.
Drawing to better remember
All these correspondences framed in parentheses, arranged in groups, bring us
in our Venetian copy to a fourth type of scholarly annotation: the mnemonic
schema. Take the case of the drawing on the cover of the volume (picture8). is
diagram makes us attend a personal moment of our annotator who applies to
assimilate well his course of physiology. is mnemonic gure sketched in speed
during of aer reading, can have no other purpose here than to help the one who
made it to retain the quaternary theory with its ve levels of correspondence (sea-
sons of the year, element, wind, humours, age of life) or if one wants, with its ve
galenic tetrads.
20 Flos medicinae Scholae Salerni. Comprenant les travaux inédits de M.Maudry de Balzac, 2Naples
1859, p.49.

Magdalena Koźluk
286
is theory, as we know it, formed the basis of ancient medicine, and the rst
traces of it are already present in the Corpus Hippocraticum, in the treatise entitled
e Nature of Man composed by Polybius, son-in-law of Hippocrates21. Without
going into detail –we refer to the many works of Jacques Jouanna –we will simply
recall that it is to Galen that the medical tradition attributes the glory of having
brought to light the Quaternary theory, as it was inherited from Hippocrates as
well as of his predecessors, Aristotle, Alkmaion of Crotone, Empedocles. anks
to this work of systematization, Galen is known in the history of medicine as
the father of ‘tetrads’, that is to say, the coordinate system based on the four ele-
ments22. Aer him, the Quaternary system underwent an increasingly complex
development by the integration of new elements by late Greek medicine, the
medieval West and the Byzantine era23. So that in the sixteenth century, by simpli-
fying things a little, the tetrads appeared in their more or less stable form24. In the
course of time new elements have been added to these tetrads, elements referring
to the four main winds, the four apostles, the four planets, the zodiac signs, the
four moments of the day, the four musical scales as well as the four regions of
the human body, which is not small25.
e number of additional components to be retained to control the humoral
theory having increased considerably, one can not doubt that aer a certain time
it had become dicult to memorize all the correspondences between elements,
seasons, ages etc. It was then that various types of methodical diagrams in various
forms, linear or circular, appeared, designed to facilitate the memorization of the
multiple correspondences between the macrocosm (the universe) and the micro-
cosm (man)
26
. Examples of these aids to memory are multiple
27
. Among the known
21 We refer to the complex subject of the transmission of the theory of moods through the Pseu-
do-Galenic treatises to J.J, Un pseudo-Galen inédit: Le pronostic sur l’homme. Contribution
à l’histoire de la théorie quaternaire dans la médecine grecque tardive: l’insertion des quatre vents,
[in:]Tro ika. Parcours antiques, Mélanges offerts à Michel Woronoff, vol.I, ed.S.D, E.G, Be-
sançon 2007, p.302–322; , Le Pseudo-Jean Damascène, [in:]Les Pères de l’Église face à la science
médicale de leur temps, ed.V.B-M, B.P, Paris 2005, p.1–27.
22 A.B, Medycyna i filozofia w starożytności, Warszawa 1999, p.102–128.
23 Let us note here, as J.Jouanna emphasizes, the importance of two treatises of Pseudo-Galen
(Le prognostic sur l’homme and les Humeurs) and the Lettre à Pentadius of Vindician (see J.J,
Un pseudo-Galen inédit…, p.303).
24 Cf. also the diagram at E.S, Das Viererchema in der antiken Humoralpathologie, Wiesba-
den 1964, p.64.
25 On the fortune of the quaternary schema cf. L.D, Le corps parlant. Savoirs et représenta-
tion des passions au XVIIe siècle, Paris–Québec 2001, p.45–48.
26 G. C, Écritures codées, Essais sur l’allégorie au XVIIe siècle, Paris 1990, p. 170. Cf. also
M.C, Machina memorialis. Méditation, rhétorique et fabrication des images au Moyen
Âge, trans. F.D-B, Paris 2002, p.51–52.
27 Cf. L.B, La chambre de la mémoire. Modèles littéraires et iconographiques à l’âge de l’impri-
merie, trans. M.-F.M, Genève 2005, p.57–136; R.K, E.P, F.S, Saturne
et la mélancolie, Études historiques et philosophiques. Nature, religion, médecine et arts, trans. F.D-
-B, L.É, Paris 1989, p.481, 514–515.

287
Reading and Annotating Galen between 1515–1531…
diagrams that have already been the subject of commentary, let us recall that of
Isidore of Seville who in the ‘wheels’ present in his De natura rerum, synthesizes
the correspondences between the four qualities (hot and cold, dry and wet, com-
bined two by two), the four elements, the four climates, the four seasons, the four
moods and the four temperaments, and the four ages of life28. Let us also men-
tion the medico-astrological gures presented by Ernest Wickersheimer in
“Janus”
29
, the emblems of Barthélemy Anneau
30
and those of Johanes Sambucus
31
,
the mnemonic engraving in the Quinta Essentia, a work by the alchemist Leon-
hard urneysser32, not forgetting the allegory of the four temperaments in the
Iconology of Caesare Ripa33 and, nnaly, in the medical emblems of Louis de
Caseneuve34.
Our diagram reads from top to bottom going towards the center. On the rst
level are the four seasons of the year (uer, estas, hiems, autumnus), the second le-
vel, the four elements (aër, ignis, terra, aqua), the third level the four winds
(Euros, Subsulanus, Boreas, Zephyrus). en come, on the fourth level, the moods
(sanguis, colera, melancolia, phlegma), and in the h, the four ages of human
life (adolestentia, iuventus, senectus, senium). is diagram has at rst sight noth-
ing original, as it follows the consensus rerum that one meets since antiquity and
thereaer in the verses of the Schola Medica Salernitana35: that is to aer, san-
guis, pueritia, uer / ignis, aestas, cholera, juuentus / Autumnus, terra, melancholia,
senectus / Decrepitus, hyems, aqua, egma. On the other hand, the addition of the
four winds –three of which were already considered to be main in the Homeric
period (Boreas, Euros, Zephyr) –to correspond to moods of the four humours
deserves our attention. Indeed, looked at it closely, the shape given to the diagram
is curious. Whether it is the result of errors made by the annotator, the winds do
not correspond to the canon of the winds as we know it from the Pseudo-Galen
treatise36.
28 La médecine médiévale à travers les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale. Exposition Bibliothèque
nationale, Paris, 31 août –5 octobre 1982, praef. A.G, J.-C.S, Paris 1982, p.39. See
also B.O, Le diagramme isidorien des saisons, son contenu physique et les représentations figura-
tives, MEFR.MÂ 108, 1, 1996, p.95–164.
29 E.W, Figures médico-astrologiques des IXe, Xe et XIe siècles, Jan 19, 1914, p.157–177.
30 B.A, Imagination poétique, Lyon: Macé Bonhomme, 1552, f° C 2 v°.
31 J.S, Les emblèmes, Antverp: Christophe Plantin, 1567, f° H4 r°.
32 L.T, Quinta essentia, Leipzig: [s.1.], 1574, p.153.
33 C.R, Iconologia, Roma: appresso Lepido Facii, 1603, p.75, 77, 78, 79.
34 L.C, Hieroglyphicorum et medicorum emblematum Dodekakroynos, [in:]I.P. Valerianis
Hieroglyphica, Lugduni: apud Paulum Frellon, 1626, p.31, 40, 63, 70.
35 Flos medicinae Scholae Salerni…, p.50: Consona sunt aer, sanguis, pueritia, uerque; conueniunt
ignis, aestats, choleraque, juuentus; Autumnus, terra, melancholia, senectus; Decrepitus uel hyems,
aqua, flegmaque sociantur.
36 For more details we refer to the article by Jacques Jouanna where the author has already traced the
fascinating history of variations on the winds, a history which remains rather obscure. See J.J-
, Un pseudo-Galen inédit…, p.319.

Magdalena Koźluk
288
It should also be added that beside the diagrams there are also, in the Venetian
copy, annotations which resemble a list of abbreviations for apothecary measure-
ments, that is to say manipulates, scruple, drachma, book, ounce, grain, etc.
Who did this copy belong to and who had so richly annotated it? Let’s stop for
a moment on the source. On the title page we see several signatures (picture9).
First, that of its rst owner with a name that is dicult to identify (‘sum mgri…
Symon S…’) but which in all probability belonged to a printer family in Cra-
cow. We meet the signature of a second owner and it is to him that we should
attribute the annotations we have presented. at owner was Marcin de Urze-
dowo (born in 1500 in Urzedow Lubelski, died in 1573 in Sandomierz), botanist,
pharmacist, doctor, priest, and author of the rst herbarium in Polish (Cracow,
1595). In 1517 he began his studies at the Jagiellonian University (Artes Liberales),
in 1521 he received his license (licentia docendi), in 1525 became the title of ma-
gister. In 1529 he was appointed superior of the Collegium Minor and in 1533
dean of the faculty. Marcin de Urzedowo continued his medical studies in 1534 in
Padua, where in 1538 he received a doctorate in medicine. He travelled to Hun-
gary and Switzerland. He became the regular doctor of Jean Amor Tarnowski
of Leliwa, one of the rst hetmans37 in the Polish army, who modernized, among
other things, government-funded eld hospitals, military quarter services and
sappers. We also know that the copy in question belonged by successive donations
to the Carmelite convent in Lvov, then to those of Cracow.
Amending with a view to a future edition of the text
We will now consider briey the copy of the Latin edition of Galen (Venice, Iuntae,
1531), also belonging to the library, because it allows us to document a last type
of reader annotations intended to amend the text in order to a subsequent edition.
e volume is distinguished by a double provenance: rst, Hieronus Mazzarini
– (owner since 1568) and second, the family of Nayman, rectors of the Jagiellonian
University (seventeenth century). However, at the end of the volume, we discover
a fragment, written in the same hand as the annotations encountered in the whole
of the copy, below which gure (a rare occurrence!), a very precise date: January
29, 1543 at two o’clock in the night (‘1543 die ianuari hora secunda noctis’) (pic-
ture10). e annotations are therefore, from an annotator prior to the rst owner
(Hieronimus Mazzarini) and thus t within the period considered.
e name of Galen is the subject of a handwritten mention on three occa-
sions in the copy: at the beginning where we can distinguish (Galeni methodi
medendi cap. 6), in the middle (Gal. in Tegni); and at the bottom (Gal. in 8 usu
[partium]). But it is the accumulation of annotations that we encounter in De
tumoribus which is quite astonishing (picture11). e annotator does the work
37 A political title from Central and Eastern Europe historically assigned to military commanders.

289
Reading and Annotating Galen between 1515–1531…
of a real philologist; he comments, spots faults, proposes modications, refers
to other treatises. ese annotations can be divided between two groups: purely
graphic interventions and philological interventions. e rst group includes all
the changes where the annotator divides the main text into chapters (‘caput 8’
/ ‘caput 9’), signals where to insert text, marks with small square brackets words
to insert (‘sic’, ‘uidet’); marks the names of tumors in margin (‘Oedma’, ‘Scyrrus’,
‘echymomata’) so that they serve as easy reference38. To the second group,
the “philologist one”, we assign places where the annotator crosses a letter in the
printed text and propose another one instead (for example p.220 line 6 ‘pituitae’
replaced by ‘pituita’; line 6 ‘altera’ replaced by ‘alterum’), or places where he strikes
out an entire word and replace it with another word(for example p.220, line 19
‘ubi contunduntur’ replaced by ‘ubi comprimitur’; ‘enim’ replaced by ‘etiam’, or
again when he refers to other books that deal with the same issue, for example
at the bottom of the page ‘Ad Glauconem…’). e question of the correctness
of these philological interventions remains open and awaits a separate study.
In conclusion, the pages of the copies preserved in the Cracow Library of Car-
melites, of Latin editions of Galen’s works, which we have just analyzed, retain
traces of the scholarly reading of those who possessed and consulted them.
Whether they were doctors, botanists, apothecaries, or in one case at least, editor
/ proof-reader, the hand-written inscriptions all testify to a conception of reading
as study and of the annotation of the works as an instrument of an appropriation
of Galen’s thought. Marked by time and by their owners, these volumes consti-
tute an excellent object of research. On the one hand and from the perspective
of the history of the book, these copies bear witness to the circulation of Galen
Latin editions in the sixteenth century far beyond the borders of Western Europe.
On the other hand and from the perspective of the history of ideas, the annota-
tions, examples of which we presented some types, reveal the spirit in which Galen
was understood at the time and are a valuable document on the reception of the
corpus galenicum on the threshold of modernity.
Translated by Justyna Sowińska
38 Cf. for example the translation of G, Des tumeurs contre nature, Lyon: Etienne Dolet, 1540,
p. 7–8.

Magdalena Koźluk
290
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Medica (Tegni) de Galien. Lectures antiques et médiévales, ed.N.P, Saint-Étienne 2008,
p. 127–168.
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Z S., G H., Die Harnfarbbezeichnungen im Fasciculus medicinae und ihre italienischen
und spanischen Übersetzungen, [in:] Farbe im Mittelalter. Materialität, Medialität, Semantik,
ed.I.B, A.S, Berlin 2011, p.969–986.

Magdalena Koźluk
292
Abstract. Copies of early-printed books have been of interest to to-day’s collectors and researchers
not only for their material aspects (names of publishers and places of printing, fonts and composi-
tion, number of known copies etc.), but also because they bear signs of their oen erratic history fol-
lowing their publication. e path followed by a particular copy of an early-printed book is reected
in its general state as an object (for instance the state of its binding), but also in its internal aspect. On
the pages of a copy of an early-printed book, annotations, drawings doodles or graphics testify to the
intimate relationship that its owners entertained with it.
To better understand how owners dealt with copies of the books they possessed, this paper examines
the annotations found in copies of some books that belong to the Carmelite convent in Cracow. We
hope to bring to the attention of scholars, copies of works of Galen housed in this library, and primar-
ily to set a perspective on how books were read by cultured individuals of in the 16th century period.
To do so, we analyse copies of the 1507 Venice edition of the Articella and a copy of Latin edition
of Galien (Iuntae, Venice, 1531). We attempt to identify the intellectual perspectives from which
cultured readers approached such texts in the 16th century.
Keywords: Galen editions, library of Carmelites in Cracow, scientic annotations, scholarly reading,
classical medicine, marginal annotations, nomenclature.
Magdalena Koźluk
University of Łódź
Department of Romance Philology
ul. Pomorska 171/173
90-236 Łódź, Poland
magdalena.kozluk@uni.lodz.pl

293
Reading and Annotating Galen between 1515–1531…
I
Fig.1. Tertia p[ar]s libri I. Teg ni Ga.[leni] de corpore, [in:] Articella, Venetiis: per Petrum
Bergomensem de Quarengiis, 1507, f°b 8r°
Fig.2. Tertia p[ar]s libri II. Teg ni Ga .[leni] de corpore, [in:] Articella, Venetiis: per Petrum
Bergomensem de Quarengiis, 1507, f°k1r°

Magdalena Koźluk
294
Fig.3. Tertia p[ar]s libri I. Teg ni Ga.[leni] de corpore, [in:] Articella, Venetiis: per Petrum
Bergomensem de Quarengiis, 1507, f°k2r°
Fig.4. Liber eophili de urinis, [in:] Articella, Venetiis: per Petrum Bergomensem de
Quarengiis, 1507 (cover recto)

295
Reading and Annotating Galen between 1515–1531…
Fig.5. Liber eophili de urinis, [in:] Articella, Venetiis: per Petrum Bergomensem de
Quarengiis, 1507 (cover recto)
Fig.6. Liber eophili de urinis, [in:] Articella, Venetiis: per Petrum Bergomensem de
Quarengiis, 1507 (cover recto)

Magdalena Koźluk
296
Fig.7. Articella, Venetiis: per Petrum Bergomensem de Quarengiis, 1507 (cover recto)

297
Reading and Annotating Galen between 1515–1531…
Fig.8. Articella, Venetiis: per Petrum Bergomensem de Quarengiis, 1507 (cover recto)
Fig.9. Articella, Venetiis: per Petrum Bergomensem de Quarengiis, 1507 (title’s page)

Magdalena Koźluk
298
Fig.10. Claudii Galeni Pergameni, medicorum, post Hippocratem principis, haec opera,
vol.V, Venetiis: in aedibus Lucaeantonii Iuntae Florentini, 1531, (cover page)

299
Reading and Annotating Galen between 1515–1531…
Fig.11. G, De Tumoribus liber, [in:] Claudii Galeni Pergameni, medicorum, post
Hippocratem principis, haec opera, vol.V, Venetiis: in aedibus Lucaeantonii Iuntae Flo-
rentini, 1531, p.220

Magdalena Koźluk
300
Fig.11a. G, De Tumoribus liber, [in:] Claudii Galeni Pergameni, medicorum, post
Hippocratem principis, haec opera, vol.V, Venetiis: in aedibus Lucaeantonii Iuntae Flo-
rentini, 1531, p.220