Galen: Simple Drugs in Syriac Book 7 [rtf]

The Graeco-Arabic translation movement has been well studied, but Syriac, the vital connection between these two languages, is often ignored. This is partly the result of a lack of surviving Syriac texts. One such text, a sixth-century translation of Galen's On Simple Drugs by Sergius of Rēš ʿAynā, exists in the undertext of an eleventh-century liturgical work, known as the Syriac Galen Palimpsest. This palimpsest contains part of this translation. By using pioneering philological and imaging techniques, the team deciphered most of the undertext of books 6–9 and collated it with other direct and indirect witnesses. We present our digital critical edition here for the first time.

希腊-阿拉伯翻译运动（Graeco-Arabic translation movement）已有较为充分的研究，但作为这两种语言间关键纽带的叙利亚语（Syriac）却常被忽视。这一现象的部分成因在于留存于世的叙利亚语文本匮乏。其中一部留存文本，乃是赖什艾奈的塞尔吉乌斯（Sergius of Rēš ʿAynā）于6世纪译出的盖伦（Galen）《论简单药物》（On Simple Drugs），该文本藏于一部被称为《叙利亚语盖伦重写本》（Syriac Galen Palimpsest）的十一世纪礼拜仪式作品的下层原始文本中。该重写本仅存该译本的部分内容。研究团队借助开创性的语文学与成像技术，破译了该重写本第6至9卷的大部分下层原始文本，并将其与其他直接、间接抄本进行了校勘。本文首次公开我们的数字校勘定本。