Exploring the medical excerpta and opuscula in the Greek manuscript collection of the Estense Library and their connections with Giorgio Valla’s œuvre – Part 1: MUT. GR. 61, ff. 31r-33r; MUT. GR. 213, 239r-242r.

Abstract

The catalogue of the Greek codices preserved at the Biblioteca Estense in Modena (compiled in 1896 by V. Puntoni, eventually revised by E. Mioni in 1965) records within Mut. gr. 61 (ff. 31-33) and Mut. gr. 213 (ff. 224-242) some unspecified excerpta and opuscula medica: excerpts of works on medical topics, taken from various authors and gathered in an apparently disorganised manner. The study of these folios has shed more light on their content, revealing well-known texts alongside with composite writings still difficult to identify, conspicuous reworkings from other authors, and uncollected witnesses of treatises attested elsewhere. In this paper, I will give the first overview of two unedited anonymous writings – a fragment on the phases of diseases (Περὶ καιρῶν, Mut. gr. 61, ff. 31r, 1 -31v, 2) and a short treatise on bloodletting (Περὶ φλεβοτομίας, Mut. 213, ff.239v-242r) – along with an overall examination of the texts contained in Mut. gr. 61, ff. 31v, 2 – 33r, 7 (a selection of Hippocrates’ Aphorisms from the indirect tradition, interpolated with texts allegedly from Galen and Theophilus). The inquiry will pave the way to the investigation of possible links between these writings and Giorgio Valla’s scientific production.