Niccolò Da reggio Translator of Galen's De Usu Partium. The Latin Translation in the History of the Text

Abstract

Niccolò da Reggio was one of the most important translators of Galen’s works. He finished his translation of De usu partium  in 1317. It replaced an anonymous Latin translation, called De iuvamentis membrorum, which was, until that time, the only way people could have read Galen’work in Latin; but the anonymous translation was unfinished and based on an Arabic text with mistakes and gaps. From that point of view, the complete translation done by Niccolò da Reggio represents in itself a major progress for medieval medical science. Moreover, when we look into the Latin text, we can see that Niccolò da Reggio had a good Greek manuscript with him, which is of a high level in the stemma codicum. In other words, the Latin translation is important and anyone who wants to edit the Greek text has to be aware of it. It also shows that, in the early fourteenth century, it was possible to resort to a complete copy of De usu partium  in South Italy.