Galen: Works on Human Nature: Volume 1, Mixtures (De Temperamentis)

Annotated translation of a key text in the history of medical and philosophical thinking about the human body.

P. N. Singer (Edited and translated by), Philip J. van der Eijk (Edited and translated by), Piero Tassinari (Assisted by)

9781009382540, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 April 2023

287 pages, 2 b/w illus.
27 x 18 x 1.9 cm, 0.484 kg

Mixtures is of central importance for Galen's views on the human body. It presents his influential typology of the human organism according to nine mixtures (or 'temperaments') of hot, cold, dry and wet. It also develops Galen's ideal of the 'well-tempered' person, whose perfect balance ensures excellent performance both physically and psychologically. Mixtures teaches the aspiring doctor how to assess the patient's mixture by training one's sense of touch and by a sophisticated use of diagnostic indicators. It presents a therapeutic regime based on the interaction between foods, drinks, drugs and the body's mixture. Mixtures is a work of natural philosophy as well as medicine. It acknowledges Aristotle's profound influence whilst engaging with Hippocratic ideas on health and nutrition, and with Stoic, Pneumatist and Peripatetic physics. It appears here in a new translation, with generous annotation, introduction and glossaries elucidating the argument and setting the work in its intellectual context.

Introduction
Mixtures: Book One
Book Two
Book Three
List of textual departures from Helmreich's edition
List of titles and abbreviations of Galen's works.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX], Philosophy of mind [HPM], Western philosophy: Medieval & Renaissance, c 500 to c 1600 [HPCB], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]