Oliver
Overwien: Einige Beobachtungen zur
Überlieferung der Hippokratesschriften in der arabischen und griechischen
Tradition
It has been known for a long
time that most of the published Arabic translations of the Hippocratic
treatises are based on the Lemmata of Galen’s commentaries (2nd c. AC).
In this paper I will discuss some philological characteristics which support
this view but have not yet been taken into account: 1. Phrases at the beginning
of the text (e.g. „qala“); 2. The translations are divided in
chapters; 3. Some titles which correspond to the titles of Galen’s
commentaries; 4. Some unusual phrases and omissions which can be explained by
the Lemmata of the commentary.
However, we also know of some
commentaries of late antique times which were likewise used as a medium for the
transmission of the Hippocratic texts. The most famous example is probably
Palladios’ commentary of the Hippocratic Aphorisms (6th c. AC). The historian al-Ya’qubihas
preserved some fragments of this text in his Ta’rih. An investigation of the chapter
„Hippocrates“ in this Ta’rih can show that al-Ya’qubis „Vorlage“
also used for the Prognosticon and
De Diaeta two commentaries of late
antique times, both of which are lost in the Greek tradition.