ABOUT BOOK

Within the academic community there are a number of common and widespread ~prejudices about the nature of iatrosophia. Iatrosophia are usually ~regarded as vernacular compilations of medical texts lacking structure or intellectual ~value and being of a purely practical scope. In addition, because they ~are often transmitted in only one manuscript, iatrosophia are viewed as ‘dead ~ends’ of the transmission. Even though these views capture some characteristics ~of the majority of known iatrosophia, they hardly suffice in defining a ~genre. For instance, a number of texts fit the description but are not called ~iatrosophia. Moreover, there are texts called iatrosophia that do not fit this ~description. ~Because of these very basic problems in understanding the genre, it is necessary ~to take a look at the evidence to determine what iatrosophia actually ~are before examining the reception of Galen in such works.