''Peri Alypias'' (), also known as ''De indolentia,'' is a treatise composed by

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

after a massive fire in the centre of Rome in 192AD. Galen's original Greek text was considered lost until it was discovered in 2005 in the library of the Vlatadon Monastery in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

by then-PhD student Antoine Pietrobelli. Prior to its rediscovery, Galen's ''Peri Alypias'' was only known from fragmentary references and quotes in Arabic and Hebrew, and the title was mentioned in Galen's ''On My Own Books (De Libris Propiis)''.

History

Although the inspiration for Galen's ''Peri'' ''Alypias'' was the fire of Rome in 192AD and the loss of many of Galen's books, the genre of writing on the prevention and cures of grief date back to 5th centuryBC Greece with Antiphon the Sophist's ''Peri Alypias'', as described by

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

. Other treatises under the same name or genre include those (now lost) by Eratosthenes of Cyrene and another by

Diogenes of Babylon Diogenes of Babylon (also known as Diogenes of Seleucia; ; ; c. 230 – c. 150/140 BC) was a Stoic philosopher. He was the head of the Stoic school in Athens, and he was one of three philosophers sent to Rome in 155 BC. He wrote many works, but ...

, a preserved Greek text by

Maximus of Tyre Maximus of Tyre (; fl. late 2nd century AD), also known as Cassius Maximus Tyrius, was a Greek rhetorician and philosopher who lived in the time of the Antonines and Commodus, and who belongs to the trend of the Second Sophistic. His writings co ...

, the third book of

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

's ''

Tusculanae Disputationes The ''Tusculanae Disputationes'' (also ''Tusculanae Quaestiones''; English: ''Tusculan Disputations'') is a series of five books written by Cicero, around 45 BC, attempting to popularise Greek philosophy in ancient Rome, including Stoicism. It is ...

'', and Plutarch's ''On Tranquility of Mind''. Galen's ''Peri Alypias'' was written as a letter to an anonymous friend in Galen's hometown of

Pergamon Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; ), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north s ...

describing the destruction of his books and surgical tools in the fire of 192 and how he endured their losses. It accounts for Galen's losses as a practicing physician and offers remedies rooted in

Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, ''i.e.'' by a God which is immersed in nature itself. Of all the schools of ancient ...

, including a frugal life, disdain for human affairs, preparation for loss, rejection of politics, and an insistence upon logic and proof over subjective opinion. Galen provides a list of where his books were located, their fate in the fire, and an account of the books owned by others that were also destroyed which Galen had re-edited and commented upon. Books destroyed included those by

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Anaxagoras Anaxagoras (; , ''Anaxagóras'', 'lord of the assembly'; ) was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae at a time when Asia Minor was under the control of the Persian Empire, Anaxagoras came to Athens. In later life he was charged ...

, Andromachus, and

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; ; c. 371 – c. 287 BC) was an ancient Greek Philosophy, philosopher and Natural history, naturalist. A native of Eresos in Lesbos, he was Aristotle's close colleague and successor as head of the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum, the ...

. Most distressingly, he reported the loss of his ''pharmakon'' (recipes for drugs, remedies, and prescriptions). Galen's work was likely written in the early months of 193AD, after the death of the emperor

Commodus Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...

, as ''Peri Alypias'' includes critical remarks around his reign. Letter writing was a conventional form in antiquity for works that addressed the "therapy of emotions", as followed by Plutarch and

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People, fictional characters and language * Seneca (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname : :* Seneca the Elder (c. 54 BC – c. AD 39), a Roman rhetorician, writer and father ...

. Galen recorded the treatise in his ''De Libris Propiis'' among his other ethical treatises. Parts of it survived in translations into Arabic, from Syriac, and into Hebrew in the 12th and 13th centuries. There is evidence that Galen's ''Peri Alypias'' was read by Arab and Iranian philosophers, including

Al-Kindi Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (; ; ; ) was an Arab Muslim polymath active as a philosopher, mathematician, physician, and music theorist Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understandin ...

Hunayn ibn Ishaq Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-Ibadi (808–873; also Hunain or Hunein; ; ; known in Latin as Johannitius) was an influential Arab Nestorian Christian translator, scholar, physician, and scientist. During the apex of the Islamic Abbasid era, he worked w ...

, and

Abu Bakr al-Razi Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, also known as Rhazes (full name: ), , was a Persian physician, philosopher and alchemist who lived during the Islamic Golden Age. He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of medicine, and al ...

, in the 9th and 10th centuries. A letter of Al-Kindi's, ''On Dispelling Sorrow'', survives from the 9th century and a chapter of Razi's ''Spiritual Medicine'' is devoted to the topic. The last evidence of Galen's work, prior to its rediscovery, was in the 13th century by a physician named

Joseph ben Judah ibn Aknin Joseph ben Judah ibn Aknin (, ; ) was a Sephardic Jewish writer of numerous treatises, mostly on the ''Mishnah'' and the Talmud. He was born in Barcelona, but settled in Fes, where by his own admission he lived as a crypto-Jew. Though a native ...

. None of the translations of Galen's work into Syriac and Arabic survive today. The 7th century Christian philosopher

John Climacus John Climacus (; ; ), also known as John of the Ladder, John Scholasticus and John Sinaites, was a 6th–7th century Christian monk at the monastery on Mount Sinai. He is revered as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholic Church. ...

published a work ''On Tranquilitiy of the Soul, or Rather on Avoiding Distress'' (), subsuming Stoic moral ideas into Christian ethics.

Rediscovery

In 2005, Antoine Pietrobelli discovered a Galenic manuscript in the library of Vlatades Monastery that contained four Galenic items, one of which was the entire text of ''Peri Alypias''. , at least seven editions or translations of ''Peri Alypias'' have been published in English, French, Greek, and Italian. The Greek text had been copied from an unknown original in the decade prior to the

fall of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-da ...

by Andreiôménos, a student of

John Argyropoulos John Argyropoulos (; ''Ioannis Argyropoulos''; ; surname also spelt ''Argyropulus'', or ''Argyropulos'', or ''Argyropulo''; c. 1415 – 26 June 1487) was a lecturer, philosopher, and humanist, one of the émigré Greek scholars who pioneered th ...

at the Xenon of the Krall, a hospital in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. The British medical historian

Vivian Nutton Vivian Nutton FBA (born 1943) is a British historian of medicine. He is Emeritus Professor at the UCL Centre for the History of Medicine, University College London, and president of the Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Re ...

has stated that the discovery of the manuscript in

"must rank with one of the most spectacular finds ever of ancient literature".

History

Rediscovery

References

Bibliography

Further reading