Cutting Words - Polemical Dimensions of Galen's Anatomical Experiments

By Luis Alejandro Salas

In Cutting Words: Polemical Dimensions of Galen's Anatomical Experiments, Luis Alejandro Salas offers a new account of Galen's medical experiments in the context of the high intellectual culture of second-century Rome. The book explores how Galen's written experiments operate alongside their live counterparts. It argues that Galen's experimental writing reperforms the licensing functions of his live demonstrations, acting as a surrogate for their performance and in some cases an improvement upon it. Cutting Words focuses on the philosophical targets and theoretical stakes of four case studies: Galen's experiments on voice production, the bladder, the heart, and the femoral artery. It ends over a millennium later with Vesalius, who adapted his Greek predecessor's writing in his own anatomical work, framing himself as a new Galen and so securing Galen's legacy of writing.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9004439188
• ISBN13: 9789004439184
• Release Date: November 2020
• Publisher: Brill
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 1.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"