On the Properties of Foodstuffs (De alimentorum facultatibus) (review)

Considering the recent surge of interest in the history of food and nutrition, it is to be welcomed that classical Greek and Latin medical sources on food and diet are now becoming more easily accessible in modern translations. One such source is Galen's work On the Properties of Foodstuffs, written presumably in the late second century C.E.. In this substantial work, Galen first provides an extremely interesting theoretical introduction to the field of dietetics, and then goes on to deal systematically with the various foods available in his time and their dietary and medicinal uses. These are arranged in the form of a catalog and divided into cereals, pulses and other vegetables, meat, and fish. As such, this is a highly informative text on the ancient theory and practice of regimen, dietetic treatment of disease, and the preparation and consumption of food; its value is enhanced by the fact that Galen also provides information on earlier medical writers (such as Diocles and Praxagoras) whose works are lost. Paradoxically, after many decades of neglect (since Beintker and Kahlenberg's German translation of the early 1950s), two English translations of this work have recently appeared within less than three years. Mark Grant included the work among other Galenic writings in a collection entitled Galen on Food and Diet (London: Routledge, 2000), and Owen Powell has now published a new translation with introduction and commentary. One suspects that the two translations were produced largely simultaneously and independently, for although Powell lists Grant's work in his bibliography, he refers to it only sporadically (not that Grant's work does not leave something to be desired, but this is another story). Powell's work is introduced by a forward by John Wilkins, which puts the Galenic text in its social context and discusses Galen's various concerns and problems in writing this work (identification, nomenclature, discovery, the role of earlier tradition, etc.). This section is followed by an introduction by Powell on the role of food in ancient medicine; Galen's research methods; some of the theoretical concepts Galen uses in his discussion, such as "property," "humour," and "quality"; his views on digestion; and some of the major technical terms Galen uses.

Useful and illuminating though this introductory material may be, it is unfortunate that neither the translation itself nor the commentary are satisfactory tools for a closer study of Galen's argument. A recurring weakness is Powell's failure to translate consistently, even within the confines of one paragraph. Only a few examples can be cited here. On page thirty-one, we first read "I myself always enquired," but a few lines later on "Some say that," whereas the Greek (p. 204,22 and p. 205,2 H[elmreich]) has past tenses on both occasions, indicating that the people Galen quotes were in fact answering his inquiries. On the same page, the phrase kata touton ton logon (p. 205,13 H.) is first rendered "In terms of this argument," whereas a few lines later kata toionde tina logon (p. 205,16 H.) is translated "In accordance with the following theory." On page thirty-two, hugrûi (p. 206,9 H.) is translated "water," thus obscuring the connection with zûmois two lines later. There are numerous other examples of this kind, where explicit connections made in the Greek text are lost in this unnecessarily loose style of translating. The commentary, far from being "detailed" (as the blurb claims), is in fact rather jejune—"Notes" would have been a better heading—and the rationale for singling out some items for discussion over others is unclear (and not explicitly justified).

Often, the comments are insufficiently focused to be very helpful. For example, Powell's remarks on pages 154 through 156 on Aristotle's views on axioms and deductive reasoning as a background to Galen's use of the word apodeixis are largely irrelevant...