The Jew's body

great fortuna in Arabic and then in Western medicine, where it spread and circulated mainly in an anonymous Arabic-Latin version until the beginning of the sixteenth century, when it was again translated into Latin by Wilhelm Kopp of Basle, physician of the French king. Probably at the same time in which the Arabic-Latin version was made, Burgundio of Pisa (d. 1 193) translated the De loc. aff from a Greek manuscript, which is today preserved in the Laurentian Library in Florence, plut. 74, 30. Durling identified this manuscript as the original of Burgundio's translation by collation and analysis of the Greek tradition. Nigel Wilson confirmed this by recognizing Burgundio's hand in the Latin annotations of the Laurentian manuscript. Burgundio's version is preserved in only five manuscripts, which are all independent and, therefore, useful for reconstructing the original text. It does not seem that this version had a wide circulation, like others of Galen made by this Pisan ambassador and translator. Nevertheless, it was known by Taddeo Alderotti (d. 1295), professor of medicine at Bologna, who used it to correct the Arabic-Latin translation. This conflation is preserved is six manuscripts, which are all independent, and printed in the first Latin edition of Galen by Diomedes Bonardus in 1490, and in the subsequent editions until the Giuntine of 1528. Durling carefully studied the extracts of Burgundio's version made by Taddeo Alderotti, which have only a few good readings. However, they attest that this Greek-Latin translation had a place in medical teaching. Burgundio's version is edited by Durling on the basis of a complete study of its tradition and in a close comparison with Galen's Greek text. Two apparatus and two indices (Greek-Latin and Latin-Greek) are provided. In the Greek-Latin apparatus five Greek manuscripts of the De loc. aft: are considered. Two other manuscripts seem to be independent (Milan, Ambrosian Library, Ambr. gr. 659 and 679), but this is not relevant for the Latin text. Burgundio's style and vocabulary are studied by Durling in the introduction. His translation of particles, conjunctions and demonstrative pronouns in the De interioribus, is compared with that of another version by him (De complexionibus) and of other medieval translations. Burgundio used some neologisms, which won later acceptance, possibly independently of him, and he seems to be a "cautious innovator". Durling's work is an excellent edition and another fundamental contribution of this eminent scholar to the knowledge of the …