Medical Aphorisms: Treatises 22-25

Celebrated medieval rabbi Moses Maimonides wrote many philosophical, legal, and medical works. Of these, Medical Aphorisms is among his best-known. Consisting of approximately fifteen hundred maxims compiled from the works of the ancient Greek physician Galen, it is arranged as twenty-five treatises organized according to traditional medieval subspecialties such as gynecology, hygiene, and diet. Because the source texts no longer survive, Maimonides’s version provides vital clues about Galen’s thought that would otherwise remain unknown. This fifth volume of Gerrit Bos’s critical edition includes both the definitive Arabic text and a masterly English translation.