Les simples de Galien

Revealing Galen's Simples

Workshop

Saturday, April 30, 2016; 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Class of 1978 Pavilion
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, sixth floor
3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA

An article published in the New York Times on June 1, 2015, described the discovery of a Syriac manuscript that contained the oldest known translation of Galen's On the Mixtures and Powers of Simple Drugs. The text of this manuscript was erased in the eleventh century. Scientists and scholars from around the world are working to recover it. This symposium will feature the manuscript itself and presentations by imaging specialists, Syriac scholars, and historians of medicine working to reveal the secrets of this challenging manuscript.

The weekend of our conference will be extremely busy on the Penn campus and some roads may be closed because of an athletics event. We earnestly advise you to walk or take public transport to the campus rather than driving.

 
Saturday, April 30, 2016

9:00-9:30 am Coffee

Session 1: Galen, Greek Medicine, and the Syriac Palimpsest
(session chair: Will Noel)

9:30-10:00 Ralph Rosen (Penn, Classical Studies) and Peter Singer (London),
Galen and the Greek Medical Tradition
 
10:00-10:30 William Noel (Penn, Kislak Center),
New Science meets Old Science: Ancient Manuscripts and Digital Technology

10:30-10:45 Discussion 10:45-11:00 am Coffee

Session 2: Galen's Simples Revealed
(session chair: Michael Toth, R. B. Toth Associates)

11:00-10:10 Michael Toth (R. B. Toth Associates), Digitization and Access

11:10-11:40 Renee Wolcott (Philadelphia), The Syriac Galen Palimpsest

11:40-12:10 Roger Easton (Rochester), Imaging the Syriac Galen Palimpsest

12:10-12:40 Siam Bhayro (Exeter), Discovering Galen's Simples

12:40-1:00 Discussion 1:00-2:30 pm Lunch (on your own)
Galen Palimpsest on display in the Lea Library

Session 3: New Discoveries
(session chair: Ralph Rosen)

2:30-2:50 Michael Toth (R. B. Toth Associates), The New Program, the New Leaves

2:50-3:10 Peter Pormann (Manchester),
The Final Frontier: Galen's Syriac Versions and Graeco-Arabic Translation Technique

3:10-3:30 Roger Hawley, Irene Calà, and Jimmy Daccache (Paris),
The Textual Interest of the Syriac Versions of Galen's Simples

3:30-4:00 Discussion, Coffee

Session 4: Digitizing Galen
(session chair: Keith Knox)

4:00-4:20 Douglas Emery (Penn, Kislak Center), Open Galen: The Digital Manuscript

4:20-4:40 William Sellers (Manchester), Working with the Data

4:40-5:00 Corneliu Arsene (Manchester), Revealing the Palimpsest 

5:00-5:30 pm Discussion and Closing Remarks (Ralph Rosen)




Free and open to the public (please show photo ID at entrance)