The Syriac Galen Palimpsest: Galen's On Simple Drugs and the Recovery of Lost Texts through Sophisticated Imaging Techniques.

格雷科-阿拉伯语翻译运动已经得到了很好的研究，但叙利亚语，这两种语言之间的重要联系，往往被忽视。这在一定程度上是因为缺乏现存的叙利亚文字。其中一个这样的文本，是六世纪由雷什艾纳的塞尔吉乌斯翻译的伽伦的《关于简单的药物》，存在于一部11世纪礼仪著作的潜台词中，被称为叙利亚文《加伦·帕林普西斯特》。这部回文本可能包含了塞尔吉乌斯的全部翻译，但它在很大程度上仍然无法阅读。现在，利用开创性的语言学和成像技术，彼得·E·波尔曼教授和Siam Bhayro博士以及Bill Sellers博士(与其他同事合作)已经开始破译潜在的文本，并确定回文包含关于简单药物的第2、4、6、8和9册的部分-如果不是全部-的话。这是一项重要的发现，具有巨大的研究潜力，因为到目前为止，已知的唯一幸存的叙利亚译本是大英图书馆手稿中关于简单药物的第6-8册。此外，叙利亚文Galen Palimpsest还可能包含迄今为止未知的全新文本，只有通过对这份文件的系统研究才能揭示出来。伽伦是古代占主导地位的医学作家，他的体系一直盛行于欧洲，直到近代早期。已经讨论了叙利亚语在保护和传播伽利安传统中的作用，但由于叙利亚语来源基本上仍未公布，其真正意义尚未得到适当确定。我们建议对这份手稿进行第一次转录、翻译和分析，初步研究表明，这可能是迄今为止发现的最重要的叙利亚医学手稿。为了做到这一点，我们将开发成像工具，使我们能够获得潜在文本的最佳读数。这些工具将在知识共享许可下提供，这意味着任何希望在其他复制品上工作的个人或机构都将能够免费这样做。人们相信，揭示医学史上这一关键阶段也将引起人们对多元文化主义和不同信仰之间的话语的关注，这些话语使此类文本的传播和改进成为可能。

The Graeco-Arabic translation movement has been well studied, but Syriac, the vital connection between these two languages, is often ignored. This is partly the result of a lack of surviving Syriac texts. One such text, a sixth-century translation of Galen's On Simple Drugs by Sergius of Resh 'Ayna, exists in the undertext of an eleventh-century liturgical work, known as the Syriac Galen Palimpsest. This palimpsest potentially contains the whole of Sergius' translation, but it has remained for the most part unreadable. Now, using pioneering philological and imaging techniques, Professor Peter E. Pormann and Drs Siam Bhayro and Bill Sellers (in collaboration with other colleagues) have begun to decipher the undertext, and have determined that the palimpsest contains parts - if not all - of books 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9 of On Simple Drugs. This is an important discovery, with great research potential, since until now, the only known surviving Syriac translations of Galen were books 6-8 of On Simple Drugs, contained in a manuscript in the British Library. Furthermore, the Syriac Galen Palimpsest could also contain entirely new text, hitherto unknown, which will only come to light through systematic study of this document. Galen was the dominant medical writer in antiquity, and his system prevailed in Europe until the early modern period. The role of Syriac in the preservation and transmission of Galenic traditions has been discussed, but the true extent of its significance has not been properly ascertained, on account of the Syriac sources remaining largely unpublished. We are proposing to produce the first transcription, translation and analysis of this manuscript, which, initial studies suggest, may be the most significant Syriac medical manuscript thus far discovered. In order to do this, we will develop imaging tools that will allow us to obtain optimum readings of the undertext. These tools will be made available under a Creative Commons license, meaning that any individual or institution wishing to work on other palimpsests will be able to do so at no cost. It is believed that shedding light on this critical stage in medical history will also draw attention to the multiculturalism and inter-faith discourse that made the transmission and improvement of such texts possible.