Greek First Edition of the Libri Medicinales, Books 10 and 14, by Aetius of Amida (6. cent. A.D.) with a German Translation, a Medical-Historical Commentary and an Analysis of the Sources

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Mathias Witt
• Subject Area: History of Science ; Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 386999510

The project aims at a critical first edition of books 10 and 14 of the early Byzantine compilation (lógoi iatrikoí, Libri medicinales) by Aetius of Amida (6th cent. A.D.). These books have never been edited in Greek so far and thus constitute the last big editorial gap of ancient Greek medical writing. All known manuscripts of these two books will be used for this first edition. The edition will be accompanied by a German translation and a philological as well as a medico-historical commentary. Thus the work will be made accessible for a larger circle of readers.It is planned to establish a new editorial method that will ensure a maximum of user-friendlyness for the reader and researchers: In a separate volume a concordance will be published in which both Aetius' text and the text passages excerpted by Aetius (in their original wording) will be printed synoptically. Divergences of these two textual versions will be highlighted by a system of graphic markings.The reader will therefore immediately be able to check which passages have been condensed, modified or reworded by Aetius. This way Aetius' excerpting technique will systematically be visualised and thus readily made available for further analysis, either by philologists or researchers interested in the history of ideas.Following this concept of an extended critical edition the very last early Byzantine medical texts still unpublished will be made accessible to a wide scope of researchers (classicists, historians of medicine, pharmacy, science, culture as well as Byzantinists).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants