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.
Funding
The Syriac Galen Palimpsest: Galen's On Simple Drugs and the Recovery of Lost Texts through Sophisticated Imaging Techniques.