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Commentary on Hippocrates' Epidemics III (and Anatomical Procedures)

Conjecturedin Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placementLegend · Told storya told story on its tag

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I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Medicine

Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

Galen of Pergamon

c. 129–216 CE. Studied anatomy in Alexandria as a young man. Writing some four centuries after Ptolemy III, he tells how the king seized the books on ships putting in at the harbour and kept Athens's official texts of the tragedians.

Commentary on Hippocrates' Epidemics III

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives in large part

Was it in Alexandria?

Conjectured

A witness to the city.

On the ledge: written elsewhere, a witness to the city; not known in the Library.

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III · In the show

The show has not yet spoken of this work.

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (2)
  • Galen, Commentary on Epidemics III 2.4 (Kuhn 17A.605-608)
  • Galen, Anatomical Procedures 1.2 (Kuhn 2.220)
Modern scholarship (2)
  • M. W. Handis, 'Myth and History: Galen and the Alexandrian Library', in Konig et al. (eds), Ancient Libraries (2013), 364-376.
  • V. Nutton, Ancient Medicine, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2013)

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

COMMENTARY ON HIPPOCRATES' EPIDEMICS III

Read what is told

The back of the tag: a story told of this work, in its teller's voice.

Legend: told story

Books from the ships

Galen tells, some four centuries later, that the king had every book found on ships putting in at Alexandria copied, gave the owners the copies, and shelved the originals labelled 'from the ships'.

Told by Galen, c. 175 CE, some four centuries later

What the evidence supports

Galen studied in Alexandria in the 150s and told the story to explain corrupted texts. It fits what is known of royal collecting, but no earlier source confirms it.

Sources
  • Galen, Commentary on Hippocrates' Epidemics III 2.4 (Kühn 17A.605–608)
The Hall of Told Stories

Beside it on the ledge