This volume provides a set of in-depth case studies about the role of questions and answers (Q&A) in ancient Greek medical writing from its Hippocratic beginnings up to, and including, Late Antiquity. The use of Q&A formulas is widely attested in ancient Greek medical texts, casting an intriguing light on its relevance for the medical art at large, and for ancient medical practice, education, and research in specific (diagnostics, didactics, dialectics). The book aims to break new grounds by exploring, for the first time, the wide complexity of this phenomenon while introducing a coherent approach. In so doing, it not only covers highly specialized medical treatises but also non-canonical authors and texts, including anonymous papyrus fragments and collections of problems.
Michiel Meeusen (Ph.D. KU Leuven, 2013) specialises in ancient science and medicine and the literature and culture of the High Roman Empire.
Contributors are:
Isabella Bonati, Luca Gili, Laura Mareri, Robert Mayhew, Michiel Meeusen, Katerina Oikonomopoulou, Andrés Pelavski, Nicola Reggiani, Antonio Ricciardetto.
"The volume provides excellent coverage of the medical papyri and problemata-style texts, with essays on audience, genre, logic, structure and text-critical and papyrological issues cohering closely together. (...) It is generally successful in its aim to use Q&A as a springboard to provide unexpected ‘windows’ onto wider cultural, philosophical, and textual features of ancient medicine. It will certainly be of interest and use not only to those working on ancient medicine more generally but also to scholars interested in wide-angled approaches to genre. It is a well-produced book with a thorough index."
Claire Hall in BMCR 2021.06.41
Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors
Ancient Greek Medicine in Questions and Answers: A Short Introduction Michiel Meeusen
1
Questioning the Obvious: The Use of Questions and Answers in Assessing Consciousness in the Hippocratic Corpus Andrés Pelavski
2
Peripatetic and Hippocratic Seeds in Pseudo-Aristotle, Problemata 4: Raising Questions about Aristotle’s Rejection of the Pangenesis Theory of Generation Robert Mayhew
3
Author(s) and Reader(s) in the Supplementary Problems (Supplementa Problematorum) Katerina Oikonomopoulou
4
Ps.-Alexander of Aphrodisias on Unsayable Properties in Medical Puzzles and Natural Problems Michiel Meeusen
5
Erotetic Logic, Uncertainty and Therapy: Galen and Alexander on Logic and Medicine Luca Gili
6
La réponse du médecin : les rapports d’ inspection médicale écrits en grec sur papyrus (Ier-IVe siècles) Antonio Ricciardetto
7
Definitions and Technical Terminology in the Erôtapokriseis on Papyrus Isabella Bonati
8
Digitizing Medical Papyri in Question-and-Answer Format Nicola Reggiani
9
Questions on the Unseen: Alexander of Tralles’ Patient Interaction Laura Mareri
Index Rerum Nominumque Index Locorum
Medical historians, specialists of ancient philosophy, and scholars of ancient Greek literature focusing on technical-scientific texts.