I’ve lately been into scientific prefaces. I think how a writer introduces their work gives us a way of testing our own expectations for what a treatise on a particular subject should look like, especially since what we think an author is saying they are going to do and what they end up doing often don’t match up. This mismatch is useful for asking questions about how scientific writing, teaching, practice and innovation interact, and how they relate to conventions of authority, culture and tradition.

Today, I went to a talk by Christine Salazar about Byzantine medical compilations and their relationship to Galen. Christine emphasized the different approaches the major compilers had to Galen’s work, and from her talk, what stuck out is how complex a tool authority was in promoting and disseminating ancient scientific doctrines. Lots has been written on the topic, and I won’t pretend to present a very subtle analysis. But, when a particular figure like Galen is mentioned as an authority, it tells us a lot more than, e.g., Galen was respected as physician, that people agreed with his methods and trusted his conclusions, or that he was in some positivistic way the culmination of what came before. It tells us something about how later authors see themselves, both in relation to their immediate audience and to posterity. Mentioning an authority is a lot different from accepting that authority’s methods and conclusions; and the conventions and standards around appeals to authority no doubt vary both from author to author and among scientific communities. When Oribasius says he thinks Galen’s methods and definitions are the most accurate, there are many ways to understand his motivations for doing so, and, I think, lots of reasons to question just what such an endorsement means. We need to read Oribasius to find out how committed he is to these ideas in practice, what authority might mean for him, and what other, less authoritative, sources might be in the background.

Oribasius, Medical Collections, I, preface

Regarding the epitomes ordered by your Divinity, Emperor Julian, I completed them some time ago when we were engaged out west in Gaul. As you requested, I produced them solely from the books written by Galen. Since you were happy with them, you ordered me to perform a second task, that I should search through the most important works of the best doctors and collect everything useful for the true end of medicine. This I decided to do eagerly and as best I could, since I believe a collection like this will be extremely useful, as those who consult it will readily find in each case what is beneficial to those in need. But, I considered it superfluous and altogether naive to write down the same things over and over as they are found in both the best writers and those who did not achieve a similar level of accuracy. And so, I will collect only what was rather well said, omitting from the arrangement of topics nothing which Galen alone was the first to mention. He is superior to all those who have written on the same subjects, since he uses the most accurate methods and definitions and follows Hippocratic principles and opinions. In this book, I will use the following arrangement of topics: first, I will collect things from the material part; next, whatever was said about the nature and structure of humans; after that, things from the subject of hygiene and restorative; and after these, whatever has to do with the theories of diagnostic and prognostic; after which, things which concern the improvement of diseases, symptoms and generally what is in contrary to nature. I will start with selections about the capacities in foods.

τὰς προσταχθείσας ἐπιτομὰς παρὰ τῆς σῆς Θειότητος, αὐτόκρατορ Ἰουλιανέ, πρότερον, ἡνίκα διετρίβομεν ἐν Γαλατίᾳ τῇ πρὸς ἑσπέραν, εἰς τέλος ἤγαγον, καθὼς ἠβουλήθης, ἅστινας ἐκ μόνων τῶν ὑπὸ Γαληνοῦ γραφέντων ἐποιησάμην. ἐπεὶ δ' ἐπαινέσας ταύτας δευτέραν ἐπέταξας πρᾶξιν, πάντων τῶν ἀρίστων ἰατρῶν ἀναζητήσαντά με τὰ καιριώτατα συναγαγεῖν καὶ πάντα ὅσα χρησιμεύει πρὸς αὐτὸ τὸ τέλος τῆς ἰατρικῆς, καὶ τοῦτο πράττειν, ὡς οἷός τέ εἰμι, προθύμως διέγνωκα, χρησιμωτάτην ὑπολαμβάνων ἔσεσθαι τὴν τοιαύτην συναγωγήν, τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων ἑτοίμως ἐξευρισκόντων τὸ ἑκάστοτε τοῖς δεομένοις ὠφέλιμον. περιττὸν δὲ νομίσας εἶναι καὶ παντελῶς εὔηθες τὸ ἐγγράφειν τὰ αὐτὰ πολλάκις, καὶ τῶν ἄριστα συγγραψάντων καὶ τῶν μὴ ὁμοίως τὸ ἀκριβὲς ἐξεργασαμένων, μόνα τὰ τῶν ἄμεινον εἰπόντων συνάξω, <τὰ> πάλαι Γαληνῷ μόνῳ ῥηθέντα, μηδὲν παραλιπὼν τάξεως, καθότι τῶν συγγραψάντων ἁπάντων εἰς τὰς αὐτὰς ὑποθέσεις αὐτὸς κρατεῖ, μεθόδοις καὶ διορισμοῖς τοῖς ἀκριβεστάτοις χρώμενος, ταῖς Ἱπποκρατείοις ἀρχαῖς καὶ δόξαις ἐξακολουθῶν. χρήσομαι δὲ κἀνταῦθα τοιαύτῃ τινὶ τάξει· καὶ πρῶτον μὲν οὖν συνάξω τὰ τοῦ ὑλικοῦ μέρους, εἶθ' ὅσα περὶ φύσεως καὶ κατασκευῆς εἴρηται τἀνθρώπου, μεθ' ἃ τὰ τῆς ὑγιεινῆς καὶ ἀναληπτικῆς πραγματείας, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ὅσα τῆς διαγνωστικῆς καὶ προγνωστικῆς ἔχεται θεωρίας, ἐφ' οἷς τὰ περὶ τῆς τῶν νοσημάτων καὶ συμπτωμάτων καὶ ὅλως τῆς τῶν παρὰ φύσιν ἐπανορθώσεως· ἄρξομαι δ' ἀπὸ τῶν περὶ τῶν ἐν ταῖς τροφαῖς δυνάμεων.

Oribasius, Collectiones medicae, I. pr., 4,3–24 Raeder