Marcus Aurelius Antonin alone with himself. Education and science Mimesis and red Sashka
Galen- famous physician of antiquity, born in Pergamon at the end of the 2nd century BC. Galen owns a number of works on human anatomy and physiology. // Galen (Galenus), Claudius (c. 130 - c. 200) - ancient Roman physician who advanced the school Hippocrates in relation to anatomy, physiology and pathology; in philosophy - an idealist, eclectically connecting the teachings Plato, Stoics and especially Aristotle .
Galen (c. 129-199 AD). A famous physician and anatomist from Pergamon, who worked in Rome and was a friend and court physician of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Many of Galen's medical works survive and, through Arabic sources, influenced all of medieval medicine and anatomy. His knowledge of the functions of the spinal cord was only fully appreciated in the 19th century, and his discoveries in the dissection of bones and muscles gave rise to terms that are still used today.
Who's who in the ancient world. Directory. Ancient Greek and Roman classics. Mythology. Story. Art. Policy. Philosophy. Compiled by Betty Radish. Translation from English by Mikhail Umnov. M., 1993, p. 57.
Galen (lat. Galenus, ca. 130 - ca. 200) - ancient Roman doctor. In the classic works “On the Parts of the Human Body” he presented the first anatomical and physiological description of the entire organism. He introduced animal experiments into medicine. Showed that anatomy and physiology are the basis of scientific diagnosis, treatment and prevention. He summarized the ideas of ancient medicine in the form of a single doctrine, which had a great influence on the development of natural science until the 16th century. Galen's teachings have been canonized by the church.
Galen (lat. Galenus, 129–199) Greek physician to gladiators in Pergamon, after which he practiced in Rome. From 169 - life physician at the emperor's court. He recognized the authority of Hippocrates, and in the field of philosophy he sided with Aristotle. His medical writings reflect all the achievements of medicine, as well as his own research in the fields of anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology. In the classic work “On the Parts of the Human Body” he presented the first anatomical and physiological description of an entire organism. Showed that anatomy and physiology are the basis of scientific diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Already in the 4th century, his writings received great praise and became a source for medical reference books. His medicine was borrowed by the Arabs and thanks to them established itself as an authoritative teaching.
Greidina N.L., Melnichuk A.A. Antiquity from A to Z. Dictionary-reference book. M., 2007.
Galen Claudius (129-199) - Roman physician and naturalist, classic of ancient medicine. Bzhmrafiya. Born into the family of a wealthy Greek architect. In Pergamum he studied the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, the Epicureans, as well as medicine and natural sciences. To obtain medical knowledge, he traveled and visited Corinth, Smyrna, and Alexandria. He provided medical care mainly to gladiators, on whom he studied anatomy. In 164 he moved to Rome, where he became a court physician for Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and after his death - for his son Commodus. Research. Along with other things, he dealt with problems of the central nervous system. He described the quadrigeminal region, the vagus nerve, and 7 pairs of cranial nerves. Conducting experiments on nerve ligation, he established that nerves are associated with sensations and movements. In contrast to Aristotle's view of the brain as a gland that secretes mucus to cool the warmth of the heart, he believed that the brain is an organ of thinking. Based on the teachings of Hippocrates, he developed the doctrine of pneumas and body juices (De temperamentum). According to his ideas, there is a “natural pneuma” that is produced in the liver and spreads through the veins; "animal pneuma", which is produced in the heart and spreads through the arteries; and “soul pneuma,” which is formed in the brain and spreads through the nerves. He considered mucus (phlegm), yellow bile, black bile and blood to be the “juices” of the body. Based on the ratio of these “juices,” they were allocated 9 temperaments, of which only 4 have survived to our time (sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, melancholic). He stated that melancholic women are more likely to get cancer than sanguine women. Considering affects, I believed that what is primary in them is not aspirations, but changes in the body, in particular an increase in “warmth of the heart.”
Kondakov I.M. Psychology. Illustrated Dictionary. // THEM. Kondakov. – 2nd ed. add. And reworked. – St. Petersburg, 2007, p. 120-121.
Works: Opera omnia, Venetiis, 1541-1545; Oeuvres anatomiques, physiologiques et medicales, P., 1854-1856; On the purpose of parts of the human body. M.: Medicine, 1971.
Literature: Kovner S. History of ancient medicine. Part 1. Issue. 1-3, Kyiv, 1878-1888; Lushevich V.V. From Heraclitus to Darwin: Essays on the history of biology. 2nd ed.. T. 1-2, M., 1960; History of Medicine / Ed. B. D. Petrova. M., 1954; Yaroshevsky M. G. History of psychology: From antiquity to the middle of the 20th century. M.: Academy, 1996.
Galen (Γαληνός, Roman name Claudius Gnlenus) (129, Pergamon, - 199, Rome), ancient Roman physician and philosopher of Greek origin (wrote in Greek). He studied medicine and philosophy in Greece and Alexandria. From 169 he lived in Rome, as a physician at the court of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, and later also of Commodus. The teaching and literary activity of Galen, enormous in scope and influence, which largely determined the development of European medicine up to the Renaissance, is imbued with the leading thought about the identity of medicine and philosophy (compare Galen’s programmatic essay “On the fact that the best physician is at the same time a philosopher” ); his idols are Hippocrates and Plato (numerous commentaries on the work of Hippocrates, the treatise “On the Views of Hippocrates and Plato,” an “abbreviation” of Plato’s “Timaeus”), but also Aristotle. Galen's philosophical views are eclectic. In logic, physics and metaphysics, Galen sided with Aristotle. In metaphysics, he added a fifth to Aristotle’s “four reasons” - “instrumental” (öi"ou). Galen’s main physiological-anatomical treatise “On the purpose of the parts of the human body” (Russian translation, 1971) reveals a consistent application of the principle of teleology, which did not interfere Galen leaned towards empiricism in the theory of knowledge and made important discoveries in experimental anatomy. The system of medicine created by Galen, the combination of monotheistic ideas (the identification of God with the highest world mind - the Stoic-Platonic Nous) with teleology provided Galen with the place of the highest authority in medicine and natural science of the Middle Ages ( comparable only to the authority of Aristotle). Galen's works were translated into Arabic, Syriac, and Hebrew. The 4th figure of the syllogism named after Galen goes back to Thophrastus and Eudemus. The History of Philosophy, preserved under the name of Galen, is a textbook for medical students, compiled about. 500 (see Doxography).
Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editor: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983.
Works: Opera omnia, ed. K. G. Kühn, v. 1-20, Lpz., 1821-33 (edition very outdated); dept. treatises in the series "Corpus medicorum graecorum", v. 4, 9,10; Scripta minors, v. l-3, Lipsiae, 1884-92; Einführung in die Logik, Komm., übers, v. J. Mau, B., I960; Galen's Institutio logica, transl., introd., comm. by J. S. Kieffer, Baltimore, 1964; Oriental Studies, v. l, Camb., 1962 (Arabic, trans.).
References: Bowersoek Q. W., Greek sophists in the Roman Empire, Oxf., 1969, eh. 6.
Galen (Γαληνός) from Pergamon (129 - ca. 210) is a Greek scientist, doctor and philosopher, who in his writings gave a synthetic account of all ancient medicine. From 169 he lived and worked in Rome at the court of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. A significant corpus of Galen's texts has been preserved, including works on practical medicine (diagnosis, dietetics, anatomy, etc.), detailed comments on the books of the Hippocratic corpus and works on applied philosophy (“On the opinions of Hippocrates and Plato”, commentary on “Timaeus”, “On that the best doctor is at the same time a philosopher”, “On the best teaching”). Galen's commentary on Hippocrates completes a rich exegetical tradition that began with Herophilus of Alexandria (c. 300 BC). Since the texts of this tradition are almost completely lost (except for one small commentary by Apollo from China and the explanatory dictionary of Erocianus), Galen turns out to be the main source of information about the medical commentaries of his predecessors. From the treatise “On His Own Writings” it is known that in total he compiled 17 commentaries on Hippocrates (11 have survived). Galen received a good liberal education, studying grammar, dialectics, philosophy, as well as geometry and arithmetic. In Smyrna I listened to a Platonist Albina, and earlier in Pergamon - a certain “disciple of Gaius”, he also studied with the Peripatetic philosopher “disciple of Aspasius” - this is how the Platonic-Peripatetic framework of his philosophical views was formed. He was interested in philosophy insofar as this knowledge could be useful to him as a doctor - and the focus of his attention is logic and psychology. Discussions between various medical Hellenistic schools (empiricists, methodologists, rationalists) were largely philosophical in content and concerned such issues as the nature of knowledge and methods of achieving it, the relationship between theory and medical practice, and the structure of cause-and-effect explanation. In his treatise “On the fact that the best physician is also a philosopher,” Galen says that knowledge of the genera and types of diseases is associated with the study of logic, which doctors usually neglect (vol. I, pp. 54.6-10 Kiihn). The idea of the benefits of philosophy for a doctor is also expressed in Protreptik. The seriousness of Galen’s logical studies is evidenced by the surviving “Introduction to Dialectics” (lat. Institutio logica) (its authenticity was disputed by Prantl), as well as the names of lost works on logic, including treatises on the theory of syllogism (De libris propriis, vol. 19 , p. 43.9-45.10 Kuhn); The 4th figure of the syllogism, named after Galen, goes back to Theophrastus and Eudemus. In general, in logic, Galen followed Aristotle and Theophrastus, which was typical of the Platonist philosophers of his time (cf. Alkina , Apuleius); He criticized Stoic logic, although he accepted the teaching of Posidonius on analogical syllogism.
“On the opinions of Hippocrates and Plato” (lat. abbr. De placitis), in 9 books. - Galen's main philosophical work, on which he worked for more than 10 years (between 162 and 176). Galen tried to show agreement in the views of Plato and Hippocrates on a number of problems relating to the “physics” of a living organism. In the book. 1-IV views on the nature of the forces that control man and living beings are considered, and the truth of the views of Plato and Hippocrates, book. V-IX are devoted to problems of sensory perception and research methodology. The treatise is emphatically polemical in nature. Galen accepts Plato's division of the soul into appetitive, affective and rational, and in this regard constantly criticizes the monistic psychology of the Stoics for denying the unreasonable soul and understanding the “passions” (pathos) as errors of judgment. The Stoics are also criticized for localizing the “leading faculty” of the soul, as well as speech and motor, in the heart - according to Galen, this thesis does not stand up to criticism based on “anatomical evidence”, which points to the brain. The main opponent is Chrysippus, whose treatise “On the Soul” Galen often quotes, which is for us an important source of knowledge about Stoic philosophical psychology; Galen cites the name of the Stoic Posidonius with sympathy, for he accepted the Platonic tripartite model of the soul. Galen is characterized by a combination of monotheistic ideas (identification of God with umomnus, in the spirit of middle Platonism) with the teleological principle (especially in “On the purpose of the parts of the human body”): based on the study of the structure of the body, Galen comes to the conclusion that “um-nus distributes everything and organizes" (vol. 3, p. 469.11 Kuhn), "the creator-demiurge leads everything that arises to the best form" (470, 11 - 12), "in everything our creator has in mind the single goal of perfection of all parts, the choice of the best" ( 476.8-10); Taking Plato’s demiurge as a model, Galen also accepts the Aristotelian principle “nature does nothing in vain.” He uses the Aristotelian doctrine of causes and, following the average Platonists, adds a fifth to the four causes - instrumental (...).
In physiology, Galen, following Hippocrates, was a proponent of the humoral theory, according to which the main components of the human body are blood, mucus, yellow and black bile, each of which is associated with a pair of fundamental opposites (according to Aristotle): hot, cold, dry and wet. Disease is defined as "damage to natural functions" and results from an excess or deficiency of the four basic qualities - alone or in combination.
The name of Galen is associated with the development of the experimental method in medicine (which in general was not characteristic of ancient natural science); experiments, including vivisection of living animals, were carried out by him in order to refute the Stoic and Aristotelian ideas about the physiology of the body, in particular, during such experiments the traditional point of view was refuted, which believed the presence of blood exclusively in the veins, and pneuma in the arteries (for when opening corpses, the arteries turned out to be empty). However, to explain the process of breathing, Galen believed the presence of a certain pneuma, which can mix with blood and, according to the three parts of the soul, is divided into three types. Galen conducted a series of experiments to prove that the center of sensations and the source of motor impulses is concentrated not in the heart, but in the brain and spinal cord. Along with air and water treatment, Galen attached great importance to medicinal preparations (a separate treatise is devoted to their recipes), and also compiled several descriptions of medicinal plants (herbals), which were repeatedly translated into Latin, Arabic, Syriac and Persian. The concept of “herbal preparations” still exists in medicine and means preparations obtained from plant materials using a special technology (tinctures, extracts, etc.). Many of Galen's lost works are known only from Arabic, Syriac and Latin translations. In the Middle Ages, both in the East and in the West, Galen remained the indisputable authority in medicine, the “king of anatomy,” and represented the ideal that Hippocrates spoke about: “the physician-philosopher is like a god.”
M. A. Solopova
New philosophical encyclopedia. In four volumes. / Institute of Philosophy RAS. Scientific ed. advice: V.S. Stepin, A.A. Guseinov, G.Yu. Semigin. M., Mysl, 2010, vol. I, A - D, p. 477-478.
Read further:
Philosophers, lovers of wisdom (biographical index).
Essays:
Galeni Opera Omnia, ed. S. G. Kiihn, Lpz., 1821-33; Galeni Pergameni Opera Minora, eds. J. Marquardt, I.v. Miiller, G. Helmreich. 3 vols. Lpz., 1884-93; Galenus: De usu Partium, 2 vols., ed. G. Heimreich. Lpz., 1907-09; Galeni De Placitis Hippocratis et Platonis. ed. and comm. R H. De Lacy, 3 vols. V., 1978-83; Galens Kommentar zu PlatonsTimaios, hrsg. von C J. Lanain. Stuttg., 1992; Galen's Institutio logica, transl., introd., comm. by J. S. Kieffer. Baltimore, 1964; in Russian translation: On the purpose of parts of the human body, transl. S. P. Kondrat-eva, ed. and introduction, art. . V. N. Ternovsky and B. D. Petrova, M., 1971.
Literature:
Kovner S. History of medicine, part 3. Kyiv, 1888; Domini P. L. Galeo ela fllosofia, ANRW I, 36, 5, 992, p. 3484-3504; Hiisler K. Galen und die Logik.-Ibid, p. 3523-3554; Hankinson R. J. Galens philosophical eclecticism. - Ibid, p. 3505-3522; Idem. Actions and Passions: Galen's Anatomy of the Soul. - Brunschwig J., Nussbaum M. C. (eds.) Passions and Perceptions: Studies in Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind. Cambr., 1993, p. 184-222; Tieleman T. Galen and Chrysippus on the Soul: Argument and Refutation in the De Placitis Books II-III. Leiden, 1996; Moraux P. Galien P., 1985; Galen: Three Treatises on the Nature of Science. Indianapolis, 1985; Nutton V. (ed.) Galen: Problems and Prospects. L., 1981; Todd R. B. Galenic medical ideas in the Greek Aristotelian commentators. ; De Lacy Ph. Galens Platonism. - "American Journal of Philology", 1972, p. 27-32; Sarton G. Galen of Kansas, 1954; des 20. Jahrunderts zur Galenforchung, ANRW II, 37, 2, 1994, p. 1351-1420;
The story depicts the real situation characteristic of the Roman Empire of the 2nd century. One of the main characters, Galen, is a famous doctor, court physician of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and after his death of Commodus, the author of many works - philosophical and mainly medical, including commentaries on the works of Hippocrates.
Satern looked at the road, which went to the low, gentle hills and was lost among them. From a distance it seemed smooth, like a steel blade. Not a single notch or bump.
A gig drawn by a pair of dark bay horses pulled up to the milepost. It was ruled by a man in a traveling cloak and a wide-brimmed hat. Having stopped his horses, he asked something to the owner of the inn who had run up and shook his head, apparently in response to his offer of services. Meanwhile, Satern, shaking the straws from his toga, approached the stranger. He looked to be about twenty-five to thirty years old. He had a dark face with a thin nose and a full mouth. Shiny, slightly bulging eyes looked a little arrogantly.
“Would you be so kind,” said Satern, “to give me a lift to Rome...
“Sit down,” the stranger suggested after a short thought. “My horses are not tired yet, and riding together is more fun and safer.” You see, I have no slaves - they are still in Brundisium.
Judging by his soft accent, Satern immediately recognized that this was a Greek. The gig was hot from the sun and smelled of some kind of herbs. Satern sank heavily into his seat. The stranger pulled the reins, and the horses rushed.
Let’s meet, my name is Galen,” said the stranger. “I’m a doctor.”
I am not one of those ignoramuses, half-educated people, or those who studied too late, who can prescribe castor oil for deafness, and advise me to lie in a cold bath for a fever. At the annual competitions in Ephesus, I have repeatedly received awards for the best medical work of the year. And in Rome, where I lived for only three years, they know me well - I have not been in Rome for five years, and the letters keep coming and coming, and everyone needs to be given advice and sent medicine, explaining how to use it.
- Don’t we have medicines in Rome? And there are many doctors.
- ABOUT! - Galen perked up. - You, I see, are not at all experienced in medicine! There are a lot of doctors, but many of them are scammers. Most people who call themselves doctors often don’t know how to read, not only write! What to read - even say. An educated patient will notice so many mistakes in their speech that, if he is not stupid, he will not even want to talk to such ignoramuses, much less be treated by them. And what is the habit of breaking into the house of a sick person with a dozen, or even two students - from the touch of so many icy fingers even a healthy person will fall ill.
- Yes Yes! - Satern picked up. - This happened to one of my students!
- And the medicines? - continued Galen, furiously waving the reins. - Yes, drug manufacturers are simply robbers or ignoramuses. They don’t even know the composition of healing mixtures, and when they want to prepare them according to medical books, they themselves become victims of deception. Herbalists cheat suppliers, suppliers cheat traders, traders cheat doctors who don’t know how to distinguish violets from nettles. A self-respecting physician prepares his own medicine. I have everything that is included in it. I made a trip to Cyprus for copper sulfate and white zinc oxide. My Cypriot friend is friends with the procurator of the Tamassa mines. I get the lead shine from deposits between Pergamum and Cyzicus. I brought asphalt and porous combustible stones from the shores of the Dead Sea. I bought Indian aloe from traders who were leading a caravan to Palestine. I will never buy the herbs that can be found locally from the damned medicinal goods merchants - my own pickers bring them fresh to me, and I dry them myself, trusting no one. My father provided me with olive oil in abundance. And I myself had a lot of it in my youth. Aged oil has medicinal properties. Now you understand why my patients and their friends prefer to send a messenger to me at Pergamon than to use the services of those who imagine that the lack of skill and talent will be made up for by silver instruments with gold handles or ivory vessels, which they place in front of the patient .
- How do you know what to send to the sick person if you see a messenger instead? - Satern was surprised.
- So the letter indicates the symptoms of the disease. With my experience, it is not difficult for me to make a diagnosis and prescribe the correct treatment. Just last month, I cured three senators from liver disease, five from a severe form of the fever that rages here every spring, and saved two from blindness, whom other doctors had almost deprived of their sight.
- From blindness? - exclaimed Satern. - But how did the messengers manage to preserve the ointments that are usually used to treat eyes during a long journey? Or don't you use ointments?
He smiled.
Who sends ointment to divorced women? She is bred on the spot. And they are brought in the form of quadrangular sticks, on each end of which a doctor’s mark is necessarily placed, so that no one is tempted to cut off a part for themselves. And on the label attached to the stick we usually name the ingredients and write whether this ointment should be rubbed on water, wine or egg.
“I see you are dealing with noble and rich people, not like the parents of my students.” How do you manage to get along with swaggering senators?
“Of course,” Galen answered after a short pause, “powerful people have many whims.” But a good doctor will be able to subordinate even a capricious patient to his demands. Some doctors indulge all the wishes of the patient. Such compliance is shameful - the doctor’s duty is to treat, not to entertain. Others, on the contrary, cause the patient’s hostility, sometimes even almost hatred of the doctor, due to the excessive severity of the instructions. And this is disastrous for treatment. I never forget the thoughts of Hippocrates, who argued that our art rests on three foundations - the patient, the disease and the doctor, and that only two people can overcome the disease, with the help of the patient himself. So if the patient hates the doctor, then his advice will not be of any use. That's why I'm never too demanding or too soft. Sometimes you have to give up your beliefs, unless, of course, this will cause harm to the patient.
- What do you do if the patient does not like any of your instructions? This happened to me once when I was invited to a rich house to teach a spoiled boy.
Here, too, I follow the wise instructions of Hippocrates to begin by arousing the surprise and admiration of the patient in the very first moments. If he looks at the doctor as a higher being, then he will willingly follow his advice.
- And how do you achieve such surprise from the Romans, who consider you Greeks to be frivolous people and - excuse me - worthless? Or does this not apply to people of high position?
“That’s true,” Galen objected. “I can force the emperor to fulfill any of my orders.” Do you think why I left Pergamum and am returning to Rome, where five years ago the envy and anger of half-educated people who were afraid of my competition and could not bear my fame forced me to leave? The emperor himself invited me. I will be the personal physician of the entire imperial family. Then these mediocrities will try to attack me again, as in the first month of my stay in Rome, when ten of them pounced on one and beat me, shouting that I was depriving them of their income by beating off patients!
- Were you attacked in our city?! - exclaimed Satern. - I never thought that doctors, like schoolchildren, could settle scores in a fight.
“The first thing,” Galen continued enthusiastically, as if not noticing his interlocutor’s reaction, “is to make a diagnosis.” As soon as I see the patient, I immediately tell him what happened to him, and only then, as soon as he recovers from his amazement, I begin to ask questions, clarifying the details. I’ll tell you straight away that you have bad kidneys. And headaches are common.
- Yes! - Satern confirmed admiringly. - But how could you guess?
This is visible to the experienced eye in several ways. In addition, just before leaving Pergamon, I treated a senator who was passing through our city for severe headaches. The doctor who accompanied him on the journey did not want to bleed him under any circumstances. Simply amazing! After all, as soon as I appeared in Rome last time, I immediately entered into a dispute with the fools of the school of Erasistratus, and, after I spoke against them with a written essay and a public lecture and answered the most difficult questions, very many, even I could Without boasting, to say almost everything, the Erasistratians became supporters of bloodletting.
For some time the companions rode in silence.
What's the matter? - asked Galen.
“I’m heading to Mantua,” said Satern. I want to bow to the homeland of Virgil.
Galen remained silent. But, judging by the expression on his face, he considered this matter not to be profitable and therefore not worthy of the attention of a serious person.
So you are a teacher? - Galen drawled, switching to Greek.
“I was,” Satern answered, also in Greek. “Now my hands and voice have weakened.” I can't deal with tomboys.
“Yes...” Galen said somehow vaguely. “A youth mentor has a lot of worries, and the fee is small.” In Pergamon, our teachers don’t even earn money on sandals.
He apparently wanted to add something else, but at that time a faint groan was heard from the side of the ravine to the right of the road.
Stop the horses! There's someone moaning there! - Satern shouted.
- Is it dangerous. I heard there are robbers playing around in these parts! - Galen objected, looking around fearfully.
- Help! - was heard from the ravine.
Satern stood on the step and jumped off. Having already crossed the ditch and descended into the ravine, he heard a cart stop on the road. A completely naked man was lying on the sun-bleached grass. A trail of blood stretched from him into the depths of the ravine. Apparently, the unfortunate man was crawling towards the road, bleeding.
The man raised his head with an effort, and Satern was surprised to recognize him as an incense merchant. Just an hour ago he was sitting importantly in his carriage, looking suspiciously at the old teacher standing to the side. And now he looks at him pleadingly.
ABOUT! “Galen’s voice rang out as he quietly descended into the ravine. “A blow to the head and a tangential wound to the chest.” I managed to raise such patients within a month. I had excellent surgical practice in the gladiator barracks in both Pergamon and Rome. There is a variety of material for the doctor, and the patients are patient and undemanding.
The wounded man turned his head.
Help me,” he said in a weak voice. “The robbers set up an ambush here.” They took all my money and clothes, but I have a companion in Rome...
- The treatment is not easy. It will cost you twenty thousand sesterces,” Galen hastened to warn. “I will be the emperor’s personal physician from tomorrow.” A newcomer will not be allowed into the imperial chambers.
A fleeting expression of annoyance appeared on the wounded man’s face, but he nodded his head affirmatively.
Of course you will receive this money as soon as we arrive in Rome.
“Helping the victim is our duty,” Galen said solemnly. “Hippocrates taught this.”
Satern helped Galen carry the wounded man and place him on a leather seat. There was no room left for him in the stroller now.
Taking his knapsack, Satern sat down on the side of the road. He remembered the conversation between the innkeeper and the groom. Wasn't this the very ravine they were talking about? Yes, the road is unsafe for travelers. Roman law threatens robbers with crucifixion. But as long as wealth attracts people, murderers and thieves will not emerge. Some are driven to crime by greed, others by cruelty or injustice. So slaves run away and become robbers.
This Galen recalled his work in the gladiator barracks - “excellent practice”! Isn’t it scary to bring people back to life so that they can kill each other again for the amusement of the crowd?
- The road... The road... - thought Satern. - You pass through hundreds of cities and villages. You link thousands of human destinies. The road is a living thread. What would eternal Rome be without its roads? Over the past centuries, this shallow rut has been carved into the stone slabs. And what remains of those who hurried to Rome for you, who were driven there by the thirst for fame and honor, or profit, or simply melancholy? Mari and Sulla, Crassus and Antony are the same travelers for you as this incense merchant or a fashionable doctor. The road... We lift you above rivers and swamps, sprinkle you with gravel or cover you with granite. We give you life, and you remember us no more than you remember worms crawling onto flagstones after rain, or noisy crows sitting on mileposts. But maybe this is the meaning of our existence - to work for the future. The works of our hands, the fruits of our minds, survive mortals and go to future generations, like this road.
The founder of modern medicine, Hippocrates, once said: “A doctor must be experienced in many things and, by the way, in massage” .
Touch gives rise to a variety of feelings in us. A two square centimeter area of skin contains more than 3 million cells and 50 nerve endings. Our ancient ancestors were unaware of this data, but they knew that touching the body can excite and soothe, encourage and punish. Therefore, we used various methods of touch in our lives.
History of massage: who was the first? There are several opinions on this matter. The most common one is that massage was invented in China. One more thing was clearly formulated by the founder of the Soviet massage system, Professor I.M. Sarkizov-Serazini: “Not a single nation, both in the distant past and in the present, can attribute to itself alone the honor of discovering and developing massage techniques. It would be wrong to say that massage was invented by the Chinese, Indians, and Greeks.”
In the Chinese manuscript “Kong Fu” from 2698 BC, the therapeutic effect of various massage techniques is already revealed. Who else but the residents China, with their disease prevention, sensitive attitude to body language - could be the first to pay close attention to the results of rubbing the body with their hands, squeezing muscles, and moderate stretching. In all the provinces of China there were schools where people were treated with massage and movements. The attitude of the inhabitants of ancient China towards massage can also be judged by the fact that the director of the most famous of these schools bore the title of “heavenly doctor”.
By the way, even then they determined the physiological effect of massage on the nervous and vascular systems. The Book of the Inner Man of the 9th century BC says: “If, under the influence of fear, the nerves and blood vessels of the human body are clogged, the human body becomes numb, then with the help of massage it can be healed.”
There, back in the 6th century, for the first time in the world, a state medical institute was created, where massage was taught. And in the 16th century, an encyclopedia was published in 64 volumes, which collected all the massage techniques.
Story Indian massage for us begins with “Ayurveda” - medical treatises written 1800 years BC. In general, India, with its unique methods, stands somewhat apart from other countries. Deifying their bodies, the Indians, thanks to massage, gave them extraordinary flexibility and plasticity, so necessary for knowledge and mastery of the Kama Sutra, which is still amazing. They say here that the first massage techniques were given to man by the Buddha himself.
Sushruta's works became famous and widely used far beyond the borders of India. The founder of Indian surgery, Sushruta, gave a detailed description of the use of friction (rubbing), pressure (kneading) and indications for the use of one or another massage technique for various pathological conditions. And in special guidelines addressed to nurses, there are requirements not only to be able to do massage, but also to strive for physical perfection and pay great attention to personal hygiene.
Romans used all the already known information about the healing properties of massage and multiplied them. Massage received especially widespread use in the system of physical education and in medicine thanks to the ancient Roman physician Asclepiad (128-56 BC). Along with abstinence from excesses in food and drink, he prescribed kneading and rubbing the entire body. Galen, the court physician of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, described stroking, rubbing, and kneading. It was he who was one of the first to use massage, following a specific technique.
The scope of massage used by the Romans seems limitless. It was used by everyone - from the emperor to the slave. A story has reached our time about Emperor Hadrian, who, having once seen an old warrior in an open bath rubbing himself against marble, stopped him and asked why he was doing it himself, to which he replied: “I don’t have a slave to rub me.” " And then Emperor Adrian, condescending to the merits of the old fighter, gave him two slaves and the necessary amount of money for their maintenance. On the way back, Adrian saw a crowd of elders rubbing against the walls. This time he advised them to rub each other themselves.
But the Ancients Grekov massage was a privilege of the rich - it had, in scientific terms, social significance. Slaves had no right to be massaged. To a large extent, because in a slave society, perfect health and physical strength were the main conditions both for protection against enemies and for keeping numerous slaves in obedience by a privileged minority.
Greece, which has an honorable role in the history of the development of physical education, was the first to massively use massage for various types of physical exercise. The cult of health and beauty of the body flourished here. The Greek physician Herodikos (5th century BC) was the first to note its physiological effect on the body. He himself lived for about a hundred years and throughout his life he regularly did gymnastics and massages. His student Hippocrates continued the development of massage techniques and used it in treatment.
By the way, cosmetic massage was also very popular. There were special salons for facial, hand and hair care.
Famous Greek doctors spoke and wrote about the physiological effects of massage, especially about its practical application in sports: Herodikos, Hippocrates and the author of the famous aphorism: “In a healthy body, a healthy mind” - Democritus.
Massage technique in the countries of Asia Minor and Central Asia differed sharply from the classical massage of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome and was called “oriental massage”. It was done not only with hands, but also with feet, trying to “squeeze” venous blood out of the muscles and give flexibility to the joints. Foot massage, or pedal massage, is still used today, most often in sports practice, when the patient has large and strong muscles and it is difficult to massage them with his hands.
During the period when science flourished in the East, in the West The power of the church and its dogmas reigned: spirit over flesh. It seems unreal that the massage procedure here was once considered sinful, and the omnipresent gloomy inquisitors could have been burned at the stake for it. Massage was then looked at as a remnant of paganism. In the 14th-15th centuries in Europe, in connection with the publication of works on human anatomy, interest in body culture and massage began to revive. In the 16th century The famous Italian scientist Merculialis, in his multi-volume work “The Art of Gymnastics”, based on critical analysis, systematizes the works of scientists of past centuries, further develops massage, giving a description of new rubbing techniques. At the beginning of the 18th century, the history of massage is associated with the names of such scientists as Goffman, Fuller, Andre. Particular interest was shown in massage after the appearance of the major work “Medical and Surgical Gymnastics,” written by the famous French clinician Clement Joseph Tissot in 1780, which provides data on the effect of using massage in combination with gymnastics in surgery.
Massage was used not only by doctors, but also by other scientists of that time. For example, thirty-five-year-old Wolfgang Johann Goethe was captivated by the idea of conquering the air and, according to Dr. Buchholz, after a long run, he carefully rubbed his tired legs when launching the ball. And when he spent a long time at the table (for example, developing the optimal geometry of the ball), he massaged the temples and the entire head.
At the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, the Swedish gymnastic system of Peter Henry Ling had a significant influence on the introduction of massage in European clinics. (1776-1839). Having gone to the East, he became acquainted with bath massage. A massage therapist saved him from an attack of rheumatoid arthritis, which the best minds in Sweden could not cure. Then Ling decided to devote his life to popularizing its therapeutic properties. In 1813 he opened the Central Royal Institute of Gymnastics in Stockholm. Precisely gymnastics because in the Swedish system there is no significant difference between physical exercise and massage itself. By the way, Ling combined ancient massage techniques into a system, but did not establish indications and contraindications and dosage of techniques.
Indications for the use of massage, based on the study of anatomy and physiology, were developed by I.G. Metzer (1839-1901). This was the next step in the development of massage.
At the V Olympic Games in 1912, the Swedes already had teams of special massage therapists on their staff.
In Rus', massage has been known since ancient times, but only as part of bath procedures. In Ancient Rus' there were even bathhouse doctors who used exclusively the properties of broom massage to treat diseases. With the advent of Christianity, this folk remedy began to be considered witchcraft.
As a therapeutic tool, massage appeared in Russia in the 19th century. The Russian nobility learned about massage at European resorts, where entire families went. Of all the methods, clear preference was then given to the developments of Peter Henry Ling.
Russian scientists made a huge contribution to the development of massage at a new level. S.G. Zabelin (1735-1802) and N.M. Amborik (1744-1812) pointed out the exceptional role of passive movements for the proper growth of infants. The founder of the national school of pediatrics, Nil Fedorovich Filatov (1836-1904), also recommended massage.
The pioneer in Russia of the treatment of fractures was K.A. Schultz. Also, the introduction of massage into traumatology practice was facilitated by the works of K.F. Werner, M.V. Shmulevich, A.P. Zechenkova, V.F. Grube, I.G. Turner. Dr. D.O. Ott achieved great results using massage as a means of treating gynecological diseases.
S.P. Botkin widely recommended massage for diseases of the liver and stomach. For eye diseases, massage in Russia was used by A.N. Maklakov, who has priority in world science in the use of mechanical vibration massage for eye diseases.
The works of I.Z. were of great importance for the development of massage in our country. Zaborovsky, who physiologically substantiated the importance of massage for sports. In 1888 in Moscow M.K. Barsov created a massage and gymnastics institute, Solovyov opened massage courses. In 1910 A.I. Pospelov founded the Institute of Medical Cosmetics. In St. Petersburg in 1991, doctor E.N. Zalesova opened a medical and gymnastics school for women and children.
In 1922 I.M. Sarkizov-Serazini organized courses on sports, hygienic and therapeutic massage at the State Central Institute of Physical Culture. They have become a real training school for highly qualified massage therapists.
The great physician and no less great writer of Ancient Rome, Claudius Galen (Galenus - calm) was born in Pergamum1, a state located in the northwestern part of Asia Minor, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. In all likelihood, he did not bear the name Claudius. It appeared as a result of an incorrectly deciphered title “most luminous”, “most glorious” (Clarissimus, abbreviated as Cl.), which was printed on his works starting from the Middle Ages.
Galen received his initial education from his father Nikon, who became famous as a philosopher, mathematician and architect. Galen studied philosophy from the age of 15, and of the ancient thinkers, Aristotle had the greatest influence on him. Galen's father wanted to make his son a philosopher, but a dream that once visited his father, and the Romans attached great importance to it, forced Galen to take up medicine. Having chosen the specialty of a doctor, he studied medicine in detail under the guidance of Pergamon scientists: the anatomist Satyricus, the pathologist Strotonik, Eschrion, Empiricus, Fitzian and other prominent learned doctors of Pergamon.
After the death of his father, Galen undertook a journey during which he studied anatomy in Smyrna. His teacher was the famous anatomist Pelops (Pelops ous Smyrna, 100 AD), who proposed the term "aura" - a Greek word meaning a light breeze or breath. He believed that this breeze passed through the vessels. There, under the guidance of Albin, Galen studied philosophy. Later he went to Corinth, where he studied with the students of the famous Quintus, studying natural history and medicine. Then he traveled around Asia Minor. Finally, he ended up in the famous Alexandria, where he diligently studied anatomy with Heraklion. Here he became acquainted with the once famous medical school and the works of its prominent representatives - Herophilus and Erasistratus. By the time Galen visited Alexandria, dissecting human bodies was prohibited here. The structure and functions of organs have been studied in monkeys and other mammals. Disappointed, Galen returned to Pergamon after six years of travel.
In his native Pergamon, 29-year-old Galen was a surgeon at the gladiator school for 4 years and became famous for his art of treating wounds, dislocations and fractures. When an uprising broke out in the city in 164, 33-year-old Galen went to Rome, where he soon became popular as an educated lecturer and an experienced physician. He became known to Emperor Marcus Aurelius, became close to the Peripatetic philosopher Eudemus, famous in Rome, and he glorified Galen, who cured him, as a skilled physician. The Roman patrician Batius, together with Galen's friends, insisted on opening a course of lectures on anatomy, and Galen read them in the Temple of Peace to a large audience of doctors and citizens interested in science. Among the listeners were the emperor's uncle Barbara, the consul Lucius Severus, who later became emperor, praetors, scientists, philosophers Eudemus and Alexander from Damascus. It should be noted that Galen was always and everywhere looking for an opportunity to attract attention to himself, as a result of which he made enemies for himself, burned by the passion to get rid of a dangerous rival. Frightened by the revenge of envious people, Galen left Rome and undertook a trip to Italy. Then he visited Pergamon and visited his mentor Pelops in Smyrna. He explained the reason for his departure either by the noisy life in Rome, or by the hostile attitude of some doctors, but mainly by the fear of the Roman plague.
At the invitation of Emperor Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius, Galen returned to Rome again two years later through Macedonia. Emperor Marcus Aurelius summoned Galen to his military camp in the city of Aquileia on the Adriatic Sea. Together with the Roman troops, Galen returned to Rome. Galen refused to accompany the emperor on the German campaign. He lived in constant anxiety, changing his place of residence one after another, fleeing mostly from ghostly enemies, whose intentions he clearly exaggerated. He ended up settling in the palace of Marcus Aurelius and becoming his family physician. One night he was urgently summoned to the emperor, who complained of being unwell. The doctors could not give the emperor the necessary advice and only frightened him with their diagnoses. Galen reassured the patient by advising him to drink Sabine wine infused with pepper. The next day, Galen heard from Philolaus that the author of the Meditations now considered him not only “the first among doctors, but the only physician-philosopher.”
Under the patronage of Marcus Aurelius, Galen was appointed physician to his son, the future Roman emperor Commodus (161-192), who participated in gladiator battles and was killed by conspirators from among the courtiers. Galen cured Faustina's son. To her words of gratitude, he replied: “Unwittingly, thanks to this, the hostility that your doctors harbor against me will intensify even more.” The consciousness of his dignity in the art of medicine never left the proud Galen. Galen considered his worthy opponent to be perhaps the only physician, Asclepiad of Bithynia (128-56 BC), who studied in Alexandria with Cleophantus and then practiced on the island of Paros, on the banks of the Hellespont, in Athens, before settling in Rome. Asclepiades rebelled against the ancient custom of the Romans: periodic cleansing with laxatives and emetics.
In Rome, Galen wrote several treatises on medicine; among them “On the purpose of parts of the human body”, as well as “Anatomy”. Unfortunately, most of his manuscripts were lost during the fire of the Temple of Peace, when the entire Palatine Library burned down. The Temple of Peace was a kind of treasury, where military leaders kept trophies, rich people kept jewelry, and Galen kept manuscripts.
In his old age, Galen returned to Pergamon to continue working on treatises on medicine in peace and quiet. Galen lived to an old age and died during the reign of Septimius Severus. This is the personality and biography of the great Galen in brief.
Now let's look at his contribution to medicine. Galen can rightfully be called the creator of etiology as a science, since he systematized the doctrine of the causes of diseases of his time. He divided pathogenic factors into ingesta (alluvial), circumfusa (solid, mechanical), excreta (liquid, pouring), causing growth, etc. He was the first to point out that the disease develops from the influence of causal factors on the corresponding predisposing state of the patient’s body. Galen called internal pathogenic factors “preparing” the body for the development of disease. Galen divided diseases into external and internal, their causes - into causes of immediate and remote action. He showed that anatomy and physiology are the basis of scientific diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
For the first time in the history of medicine, Galen introduced experiment into practice, and therefore he can be considered one of the predecessors of experimental physiology. While studying the function of the lungs and the breathing mechanism in an experiment, he found that the diaphragm and pectoral muscles expand the chest, drawing air into the lungs. Galen wrote a lot about the functions of individual organs. Some of his views, for example on blood circulation, the digestive and respiratory systems, were erroneous. He described many details of the structure of the human body, gave names to some bones, joints and muscles, which have been preserved in medicine to this day.
Galen introduced vivisection and animal experiments into medicine, and for the first time developed a technique for dissecting the brain. Experiments were carried out on pigs, cows, etc. It should be especially emphasized that Galen never performed autopsies on a human corpse; all his anatomical ideas were built by analogy with the structure of the body of animals. He proceeded from the words of his idol Aristotle: “Much is unknown or raises doubts about the structure of human internal organs, therefore it is necessary to study them in other animals, whose organs are similar to human ones.” While treating gladiators, Galen was able to significantly expand his anatomical knowledge, which in general suffered from many errors.
Galen was one of the first to experimentally establish the absence of pain when cutting the brain matter. He studied the veins of the brain and described in detail the inferior vena cava, which bears his name, which collects blood from the lower extremities, walls and organs of the pelvis, from the walls of the abdominal cavity, from the diaphragm, some abdominal organs (liver, kidneys, adrenal glands), from the gonads , spinal cord and its membranes (partially).
Galen contributed to the description of the human nervous system, pointing out that it is a branched trunk, each of the branches of which lives an independent life. Nerves are made of the same substance as the brain. They serve sensation and movement. Galen distinguished between sensitive, “soft” nerves that go to organs, and “hard” nerves associated with muscles, through which voluntary movements are performed. He pointed to the optic nerve and established that this nerve passes into the retina of the eye.
Galen considered the brain, heart and liver to be the organs of the soul. Each of them was assigned one of the mental functions according to the division of parts of the soul proposed by Plato: the liver is the bearer of lust, the heart is the bearer of anger and courage, the brain is the bearer of reason. In the brain, the main role was assigned to the ventricles, especially the posterior one, where, according to Galen, the highest type of pneuma is produced, corresponding to the mind, which is an essential feature of man, just as locomotion (which has its own “soul”, or pneuma) is typical of animals, and growth (again assuming a special pneuma) - for plants. Galen devoted a lot of attention to the hypothetical “pneuma”, which supposedly penetrates matter and revives the human body. Galen's doctrine of temperaments was further developed. It, like Hippocrates, was based on the humoral concept.
Galen also gave a place to practical medicine. In his works they found the place of illness of a large number of organs of the human body; eye diseases are described in detail; a number of practical tips on therapeutic exercises and recommendations on how to apply compresses, apply leeches, and operate wounds are given. He treated people with electricity, using the living power plants of the inhabitants of the deep sea - fish. The treatment for migraines, according to Galen, consisted of instilling fume juice with oil and vinegar into the nose.
Galen also gives a number of recipes for powders, ointments, tinctures, extracts and pills. His recipes, in a slightly modified form, are still used today and are called “galenic preparations” - medicines made by processing plant or animal raw materials and extracting active principles from them. Galenic preparations include tinctures, extracts, liniments, syrups, waters, oils, alcohols, soaps, plasters, mustard plasters. Galen developed the recipe for the still used cosmetic product “cold cream”, which consists of essential oil, wax and rose water.
The teaching and literary activity of Galen, enormous in scope and influence, which largely determined the development of European medicine up to the Renaissance, is imbued with the leading thought about the identity of medicine and philosophy (cf. Galen’s programmatic essay “On the fact that the best doctor is at the same time a philosopher "). Philosophizing in those days meant communication with people initiated into the secrets of the universe and human nature - communication combined with learning. In the Hellenistic era, the main theme of education was the art of living. Often it acquired a psychotherapeutic character: the philosopher became a confessor - a healer of the soul. The need for such healers was enormous; it was necessary to give a person the opportunity to cope with anxieties, negative emotions, fear and various, as we would now say, “stressful conditions.” The philosopher occupied a position similar in many respects to the role of the modern priest. He was invited to consult when discussing difficult moral problems.
Galen wrote over 400 treatises, including 200 on medicine, of which about 100 treatises survived, the rest were burned during a fire in Rome. Galen compiled a dictionary and commentary on the writings of Hippocrates. He introduced many new Greek names, clarified the meanings of old ones, and revived some almost forgotten or obscure Hippocratic designations for his contemporaries. Galen reduced the use of the word diaphragma to the single meaning of “abdominal obstruction” and assigned the anatomical meaning of “nerve ganglion” to the word ganglion, which denoted a tumor-like formation. Galen managed to make the name sternon unambiguous - sternum. He clarified the formal and substantive aspects of the term anastomosis. He is the author of the names thalamus - lat. thalamus (visual thalamus of the brain), phleps azygos - lat. vena azygos (gypsy vein), cremaster (muscle that lifts the testicle), peristaltike kinesis - peristalsis, etc.
The idealistic orientation of Galen's writings contributed to the transformation of his teaching into the so-called Galenism, canonized by the church and dominant in medicine for many centuries. Galen occupies a completely exceptional place in the history of medicine. For centuries, only the creator of the humoral theory and the so-called rational medicine, Galen, was read, and only his authoritative opinion was listened to. His teaching reigned supreme for 14 centuries, until the Renaissance.
And then a brave man was found who dared to overturn this idol. It was Paracelsus. He was of the opinion that since the time of Hippocrates, medicine had not made a single step forward, and also dared to assert that Galen had led it away from the normal path of development and, moreover, pushed it back, darkening the sober ideas of Hippocrates with the vague ideas of Plato. Galen's authority was shaken and then overthrown, mainly after the appearance of the treatise “On the Structure of the Human Body” by Vesalius.
We are accustomed to admiring the Hippocratic Oath, although few have read it in its entirety, and even fewer know that it is simply called the Oath, less often the Doctor’s Oath.
The terrible Hippocratic oath
Surprise brings acquaintance with the ancient monument of Greek writing, part of the so-called Hippocratic Corpus. The high ethics of this text remain modern - it is no coincidence that all the oaths and oaths that young graduate doctors take are based on this ancient text. And it speaks of a worthy attitude towards the patient, and of reverence for those who taught you the art of medicine, and of chastity in every sense...
Only one thing escapes our modern consciousness - if this Oath had been fulfilled in all its ancient sense, neither Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, nor Nikolai Aleksandrovich Velyaminov, nor Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, nor Luka Voino-Yasenetsky would have become doctors. The reason is simple - the Oath says: “I swear to communicate instructions, oral lessons and everything else in the teaching to my sons, the sons of my teacher and students bound by an obligation and oath according to the medical law, but to no one else.”
This was noticed by a major researcher of the Hippocratic Corpus, Ludwig Edelstein, who, by the way, made a revolution in the approach to the history of ancient medicine in the middle of the 20th century. He broke many stereotypes of perception of the place and role of the ancient doctor in society that had developed in the 17th–19th centuries.
The doctor of Greek antiquity was not a rich man adorned with rings, he was a wanderer walking along the roads with a staff, a poor periodeut. This is a craftsman. And the art of healing is called techne iatrike- like the art of a potter.
So, you can become a doctor only if your father is a doctor.
Fortunately, this oath of the Asclepiad family, descendants of Asclepius, the mysterious hero-god, conqueror of death and physician, very quickly lost this original meaning.
Hippocrates
Galen's revolt
In the family of a wealthy Pergamian, the famous architect Nikon, there is grief. The stubborn only son - “Like his mother!”, Nikon exclaims in grief - no longer wants to learn his father’s art.
“What do you want, my child?” – asks a tired Nikon. “I want to study to become a doctor!” - the young man answers through tears. “That wasn’t enough yet!” - Nikon shouts in anger, throwing the diphros, a small stool, into the corner. The Syrian slave deftly dodges, and the expensive Egyptian vase shatters into fragments.
The young man runs away to his bedroom in tears, Nikon orders the slave to be whipped, tries to concentrate on the household books - but everything falls out of his hands due to frustration. Tired, exhausted by a multi-day domestic war, he lights lamps in front of the statues of the gods and, of course, in front of the statue of the patron of their city, Asclepius of Pergamon, and goes to bed, calling on fate-Tyuche to be merciful to him, the unfortunate architect...
The night is coming. The constellation Asclepius Ophiuchus shines over Pergamon, over the temple of Asclepius, over its medical school, over the house of the long-suffering Nikon...
"Nikon!" - says a certain man in a white robe. - “You are acting against the will of the gods!”
Nikon tosses and turns on his restless bed, but does not wake up. “Give your son to my family, Nikon! - says the divine guest. “His destiny is among the Asclepiads!”
Thus, in the Pergamon Asclepeion in the 2nd century AD, a new student appeared, whose fame reached Rome and survived two millennia. The son of the architect Nikon, he was the court physician of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, and then of his son Commodus. A doctor who was revered in antiquity and in the Middle Ages in Europe and the Arab East. His name is not forgotten even now. Who remembers his classmates from medical families?
Claudius Galen
Hereditary monk-artists of the Renaissance
Everyone knows the love story of the father of the reformation, the Augustinian monk Martin Luther, and the nun Katharina, who brought six children into the world. But less known is the story of the monk Filippo and the nun Lucretia, true children of the Renaissance. Fra Filippo, an orphan raised by monks and who became a monk at the age of fifteen, kidnapped the nun Lucrezia from the monastery, who became the mother of his children, including the talented Filippino.
The Pope, at the request of Cosimo de' Medici, nevertheless recognized this marriage as legal, freeing the spouses from monastic vows. Filippino was orphaned early and became a student of Botticelli, one of his most famous paintings is “The Vision of St. Bernard” in Badia in Florence. Filippo's most famous works are in the cathedral of Prato.
Mimesis and red-haired Sashka
Since ancient times, learning has consisted of imitation - mimesis in Greek. The student was to become “like his teacher” (Matthew 10:25), whether learning the Torah at the feet of Gamaliel, as was the case in the life of Paul, or carpentry, as was the case in the life of the youth Jesus of Nazareth, the named son of Joseph. Thousands and thousands of sons learned the craft from their fathers and passed on what they learned.
« The ancient world... faithfully preserved legend and tradition. The father could leave the poem to his son so that he could finish it, just as he could leave cultivated land. Perhaps the Iliad was created by one person; perhaps a whole hundred people. But remember: there was more unity in those hundred then than there is now in one person. Then the city was like a person. Now man is like a city engulfed in civil war", wrote Chesterton.
It seems that this tradition of the ancient world has been preserved in the families of violin makers. In the Italian city of Cremona, the Amati family has been mentioned since 1097, but for the first time this name sounded throughout the world when the young Andrea Amati, still twenty-six years old, began to put his family name on his instruments.
Together with his brother Antonio, they opened a workshop and created in it what would later be called a “classical violin” - a steeply rounded head, not very convex soundboards, a narrow waist, elongated and graceful proportions.
For the first time, they paid attention to the choice of wood for the violin - they only took maple and spruce, and a special varnish was the second secret of why the violin sang like an Italian maiden with a soprano voice. These violins were among the king's violins, and few rich people could afford to own them.
Andrea and Antonio became the founders of the great violin dynasty - their sons were as brilliant as their fathers, but the plague took the entire family to the grave, almost ending the Amati family forever. And Andrea’s grandson, Nicola, the only survivor, continued what was bequeathed to him.
But he was destined for something more than to become the resurrector of the Amati family - violin makers. The founders of other great schools were born in his school, he became like a source from which dozens of full-flowing, strong rivers run - Ruggeri, Grancino, Santo Serafin...
One of his students - bearing the name of his glorious grandfather, Andrea, and the surname Guarneri, founded a new school, and already his grandson, the most famous of the Guarneri, Giuseppe, will receive the epithet Del Gesu - “Jesus”: he always signed violins with three Greek letters, Iota-eta-sigma, IHC - acronym for Savior.
Amati's second student is known to everyone. This is Antonio Stradivari, who lived a long and happy life, whose violins sang louder and more cheerfully than Amati’s violins, and whose secret will never be solved - is it the soil or the varnish that gives the violins his amazing voice? Or is this how the soul of the step-heir of the great Amati sings, having completed the construction of the city, plowed the field, finished singing the song?
Antonio Stradivari
It is worth noting that when Konstantin Tretyakov donated to the Moscow Conservatory in the 19th century a collection of bowed instruments by the masters Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari, he did so with one, but strict condition: these instruments were intended for use by the poorest students... A dynasty may not be born of flesh and blood, but also from the selflessness-love of the teacher and from the trust-love of the student...
But in the same 19th century, after the duel on the Black River, the sons did not finish the poem of the Russian Homer - and he himself, perhaps, did not imagine this possible. Pushkin wrote in letters to his wife about his beloved son Sashka: “ Yes, does he look like someone with red hair? I didn't expect this from him! ...God forbid he should follow in my footsteps, write poetry, and quarrel with kings! He doesn’t outdo his father in poetry, and he can’t beat a whip…»
Genealogy according to Matthew
When you read one of the most, perhaps, incomprehensible passages of the New Testament - the genealogy of Christ from the Evangelist Matthew, you involuntarily become drawn into the delight of the narrator, who repeats - “fourteen, fourteen, fourteen generations!”
And then you already understand that this is joy about the Messiah-David, and his number - fourteen - was deliberately formed in the genealogy, or rather, in the short theological treatise of Matthew. Yes, Jesus – David, David and David! And He is from the flesh and blood of Abraham and Isaac, Joram and Jotham, Abihu and Azor - generations and generations of Davidians. He is the root and descendant of David, and that says it all!
All? But, ending the genealogy with the jubilant “David has come!”, the evangelist seems to interrupt himself and say (in Greek it sounds much brighter): “And as for the Nativity of Jesus Christ, it was like this.”
And the genealogy, the genealogy of the genesis-existence of God with people breaks out beyond the framework of human steps, along which generation after generation, Abraham and Isaac, Abihu and Azor, painfully walk towards hope - “not receiving what was promised” (Heb. 11:39). God acts completely freely, and Jesus is born contrary to all plans and calculations - but then why Obed and Jesse? Why do the dynasties of the righteous need the book of Genesis and the genealogy of the Gospel of Matthew so vividly reminiscent of them?
But the ways of God in Christ are the ways of paradox.
The son of a carpenter and a carpenter by trade Himself - how unlike Jesus is from John the Baptist, His second cousin, the son of a priest, who from an early age absorbed the tradition passed on from father to son since the time of Aaron and Moses, and the noblest trait of the people of this dynasty is zeal for God, to death - whether yours or someone else's...
And an unrecognized younger brother comes to Him in the Jordan - God knows how many such younger relatives there are in the eastern poor villages! John performs baptism and recognizes the One who will teach not what he learned in mimesis from the teacher through generations and generations, but will teach “with authority,” that is, directly from God, bypassing the dynasties and genealogies of mentors.
He, Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of Man, seems to act outside of dynasties, genealogies and tradition itself - although tzitzit tassels are sewn on His clothes, and after death on the cross He will be wrapped in a tahrichim shroud - like all the sons of Israel.
It was as if He was not in the tradition - and this led Him to the Cross, but He was in it so much that He undermined all genealogies and genealogies from the inside, just as the sky was torn over John, as the temple veil was torn on the day of His crucifixion.
And therefore, different people came into His new genealogy from the ends of the earth, not from the family of Abraham, but the Syrophoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Slavs and Asians. Because now He, the Risen One, can make any stranger a brother, anyone who is different can teach him how to hear the Father...
Unhereditary geniuses - Russian writers
Surprisingly, the great creators of Russian literature - literature that discovered and reveals to the world the Suffering Christ, the Meek Christ, the Unrecognized and Recognizable Christ, were outside of literary dynasties. As if they, like Saul once, had a word from the Spirit - and so, for some reason, the nobles “began to write,” although, from a simple worldly perspective, why did they need it?
Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev did not come from families of writers, and they did not expect their children to finish unfinished novels. Here is the mystery of the exodus from the dynasty, akin to the mystery of Abraham taking Isaac to Mount Moriah. Isaac is not given the opportunity to live a life similar to the stormy life of his father, he is not given the opportunity to learn the secret of the raised sword over the burnt offering...
Death of Doctor Botkin
The fourth son of Sergei Petrovich Botkin, Evgeniy, tried to find his own path by entering the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, but he studied there for only a year and became a doctor, like his famous father, graduating with honors from the Military Medical Academy.
His scientific and medical career is truly breathtaking. After a trip abroad to Heidelberg and Berlin, he defended his dissertation dedicated to his father, his first mentor and inspiration. His opponent is the great Pavlov himself.
The year 1917 comes. Doctor Botkin is summoned for questioning.
« Listen, doctor, the revolutionary headquarters has decided to release you. You are a doctor and want to help suffering people. We have enough opportunities for this. you can take over the management of a hospital in Moscow or open your own practice. We will even give you recommendations, so no one can have anything against you».
...This Botkin was a giant. On his face, framed by a beard, piercing eyes glittered from behind thick glasses. He always wore the uniform that the sovereign granted him. But at the time when the Tsar allowed himself to remove his shoulder straps, Botkin opposed this. It seemed that he did not want to admit that he was a prisoner.
“I think I understood you correctly, gentlemen. But, you see, I gave the king my word of honor to remain with him as long as he lives. For a person in my position it is impossible not to keep such a word. I also cannot leave an heir alone. How can I reconcile this with my conscience? You still have to understand it.”
“Why are you sacrificing yourself for... well, shall we say, for a lost cause?”“Lost Cause? - Botkin said slowly. His eyes sparkled. - Well, if Russia dies, I might die too. But under no circumstances will I leave the king!” (*)
For Dr. Botkin there was a choice - to continue the traditions of the dynasty of doctors, the work of his father-doctor - or die the death of a loser with other losers. But it is no coincidence that his father - both a doctor and a Christian - gave him the name Eugene - “noble”. Eugene continued the tradition of his Christian father and remained a great doctor worthy of his dynasty.
Life physician E.S. Botkin with his daughter Tatyana and son Gleb. Tobolsk 1918
Evgeny Botkin was shot on the night of July 16-17, 1918, along with his patients - adults and children from the Romanov dynasty...
Despite all hopelessness, a miracle occurs - the dynasty of Russian doctors merges with the dynasty of Russian tsars, becoming the dynasty of the martyrs of Christ and finding itself in the Son of David, the Son of God, the Son of Mary...
(*) According to I. L. Meyer, “How the Royal Family Died”
Have you read the article The terrible Hippocratic oath. Read also.
