GALEN, CLAUDIUS, prince of the Greek physicians after Hippocrates, was born at Pergamus, in Asia Minor, about the year 131. His father was possessed of a considerable fortune, and not only well versed in polite literature, philosophy, astronomy, and geometry, but skilled in architecture. He instructed his son in the rudiments of learning, and afterwards procured him the greatest masters of the age in philosophy and eloquence. Galen having finished his studies under their care, chose physic as his profession, and chiefly studied the works of Hippocrates. Having at length exhausted all the sources of literature which were to be found at home, he resolved to travel, in order to converse with the most able physicians in other countries, intending at the same time to take every opportunity of inspecting on the spot the plants and drugs of the countries through which he passed. With this view he proceeded to Alexandria, where he staid some years; from thence he travelled into Cilicia, passed through Palestine, visited the isles of Crete and Cyprus, and made two voyages to Lemnos, in order to examine the Lemnian earth, which was then esteemed an admirable medicine. With the same view he went into Lower Syria, in order to obtain a thorough insight into the nature of the opobalsamum, or balm of Gilead; and having completed his design, he returned home by the way of Alexandria.
Galen had been four years at Pergamus, where his practice was attended with extraordinary success, when some seditious commotions induced him to repair to Rome, where he resolved to settle; but the proofs he gave of his superior skill, added to the respect shown him by several persons of elevated rank, created him so many enemies amongst his brethren of the faculty, that he was obliged to quit the city, after having resided there four or five years. He had not long returned to Pergamus, however, when he was recalled by the Emperors Aurelius and Verus. After their death, he retired to his native country, where he died about the year 200. He wrote in the Greek language, and is said to have composed two hundred volumes, which were unhappily burnt in the Temple of Peace. Galen was of a delicate constitution, as he himself asserts; but nevertheless, by his temperance and skill in physic, he arrived at a great age; for it was his maxim always to rise from table with some degree of appetite. He is justly considered as the greatest physician of antiquity next to Hippocrates; and he performed such surprising cures that he was accused of magic.
But without entering into any detail of the particular treatises written by Galen, it may be sufficient here to notice the different editions of his collected works. The Greek editions are those of Aldus and Asulanus, printed at Venice, 1527, in five vols. folio; and that of Hieronymus Gemuseus, printed at Basil, 1538, in the same form. The Latin editions are that of Paris, 1536, in folio, printed by Colinaeus, and reprinted at Lyons in 1554, with additions and corrections by Frellonius; that of Basil, 1542, in folio, printed by Frobenius, and edited by Gemuseus; the editions published at the same place in 1549, 1550, and 1562, the last of which contains an able preface by Conrad Gesner; the edition of Venice, 1562, with the corrections of Rasario; ten editions published at Venice by the Juntas between 1541 and 1625, the ninth of which, printed in 1609, and the tenth, a reprint of the ninth, are the most correct; and, lastly, an edition printed at Venice in 1541-1545, by Farraeus, in seven vols. 8vo, with the notes of Ricci. But the most elegant as well as most complete edition of Galen's works, both in
Greek and in Latin, is that which was published at Paris by René Chartier, 1639-1679, in thirteen vols. folio, which are ordinarily bound in nine or ten. This edition included the works of Hippocrates.