Galen begins his treatise On Habits with a description of someone who is initially harmed by eating beef, but who, after being forced to eat it daily for a year, is no longer harmed, or is harmed less than people unaccustomed to it. This is his opening example, one of several, in his discussion of the role of habit in health.
The book under review is a new edition, translation, and commentary on Galen’s On Habits. As is customary with volumes from the Budé collection, there is a long introduction, followed by a Greek text and translation on facing pages, and concluded with a set of detailed notes on textual issues or matters of interpretation.
The introduction begins with the question of the authenticity of the treatise. Did Galen write it or not? As Boudon-Millot notes, some early modern editors doubted the authenticity of the treatise on the grounds that its title is not mentioned in Galen’s lists of his own works. However, the question of authenticity is resolved by the fact that Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, the famous translator of the ninth century, mentions it as an authentic work in his Risāla. This, combined with stylistic features, shows that ‘il n’y a aucune raison sérieuse de soupçonner l’authenticité du traité’ (p. ix).
There is then a discussion of the title of the treatise. Was it called Περὶ ἐθῶν or Περὶ ἠθῶν, or some other variant? Boudon-Millot argues, sensibly enough, that in spite of the fact that it is given several different names when quoted or cited by Galen in his other works or by other authors, it should be called Περὶ ἐθῶν as this is what corresponds most accurately with its contents and this is the title it has in the sole Greek manuscript, Laurentianus Plut. 75.07 (twelfth century).
Regarding the date of the treatise, Boudon-Millot argues (p. xxxii) that On Habits was probably written between 176 and 180 AD. The pieces of evidence she relies on are Galen’s own citations of the work in other writings, a method which she appropriately recognises has some serious limitations, not least the fact that these other writings rarely have secure dates themselves.
The text has unfortunately come down to us in only one surviving Greek manuscript, Laurentianus Plut. 75.07, as noted above. However, Diels, in his catalogue of manuscripts of works of Hippocrates and Galen, mentions two other manuscripts at Padua and Venice. This knowledge seems to derive as far back as the Italian humanist Giacomo Filippo Tomasini (1595–1655), who twice mentions in separate writings a work of Galen De moribus. Sadly, as Boudon-Millot says, these manuscripts have not come to light, if they ever existed, and if Tomasini was not mistaken. Boudon-Millot therefore bases her edition, as she must, on Laurentianus Plut. 75.07, in combination with ‘la tradition orientale’, namely the Arabic translation made by Ḥusbayš, nephew of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, based on the latter’s own Syriac translation, which is now lost. The Arabic is preserved in a single manuscript, Aya Sofia 3725, of the twelfth or thirteenth century.
One of the most interesting items in Boudon-Millot’s discussion of the textual tradition is a fascinating letter (pp. lxxxix–xc) from Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq written to Salmawayh ibn Bunān (died 839–840), which Ḥusbayš translated from Syriac into Arabic, where Ḥunayn talks about the value of the treatise: “it is always a joy for me,” Ḥunayn writes to Salmawayh, “when I can offer you something that helps promote health according to the art of medicine.” What we eat and consume greatly affects our health, says Ḥunayn, clearly wanting to be useful to his friend by sending a useful discussion on the topic. Ḥunayn adds, in good scholarly self-deprecatory humour, that he was unable to send it accompanied by a commentary (“Alas, I send it to you without a commentary!”), but follows this up by stating, with bookish excitement, that he has, however, managed to send along with the Syriac translation some explanations of the citations of Plato and Hippocrates that Galen includes in On Habits.
In Boudon-Millot’s volume, the text of On Habits covers twenty-nine pages. It seems fair to say that On Habits is an interesting work but also one that is at times written in an oddly contorted and twisted way. The great length of many of the sentences in it is also a notable feature. It is very helpful, therefore, that Boudon-Millot supplies a ‘résumé’ of the contents (pp. xxii–xxvi).
If I may be permitted to attempt to summarise the work myself, Galen’s argument is that a doctor cannot treat bodies in the abstract, because bodies are partly made by what they repeatedly do: what they eat, drink, endure, practise, avoid, and suffer. Habit gradually alters tolerance, digestion, strength, memory, endurance, and even the apparent “nature” of a person. Therefore, habit has great power in shaping an individual’s health. Galen adopts a polemical tone against those who seem to think habit is not important for health, and as appeals to authority he refers to Plato, Hippocrates, and Erasistratus, all of whom had something important to say about the role of habit.
Because the body gradually becomes accustomed to what it is habituated to, sudden change is dangerous. Even an objectively better regimen may harm someone if it is introduced abruptly. A person used to one meal a day may feel heavy and bilious if lunch is suddenly added. Likewise, bread-eaters and barley-cake eaters may each be upset by the other food, not because one food is universally bad, but because each body has been trained into a certain pattern.
Galen also broadens the point beyond diet. Habit affects exercise, sleep, bathing, heat, cold, mental labour, memory, and study. One of the most charming examples Galen mentions is the person who cannot remember a few iambic lines from the middle of a play, but can recite them easily if allowed to begin from the start: memory itself follows habitual sequences. Similarly, the trained researcher keeps searching until he reaches the answer, whereas the untrained mind tires quickly.
The most dramatic anecdote Galen relates is one about Aristotle of Mytilene, who refused cold water during illness because he knew his own body: he believed it would trigger an epileptic attack, and Galen thinks he judged correctly, though he died. Galen balances this with his own claim that he saved fever patients by giving cold water when other physicians hesitated. The point is not “cold water is good” or “cold water is bad,” but that treatment depends on constitution, disease, timing, habit, and what a specific individual has become accustomed to over time.
The funniest Galenic moment is his attack on people who fail to notice such things: sensible people know from daily life what foods, drinks, baths, exercises, and routines suit them. Only those who live like “pigs or donkeys” ignore what helps or harms them and fail to abandon bad habits (§V.13)!
All in all, Boudon-Millot’s edition of Galen’s On Habits is a beautiful piece of scholarship, and has also been finely produced by the press. Boudon-Millot is a real scholar’s scholar: she leaves no stone unturned, she takes great care in formulating every statement she makes, and she thinks with great clarity. In addition to this, the work is written in fine, elegant, exact prose. This volume is thoroughly recommended.