For the editio princeps (first edition) of the Greek text of Galen, the most likely candidate to undertake the task was the scholar-printer Aldus Manutius (1449–1515). Aldus published Aristotle’s Opera in five volumes between 1495 and 1498, and in the preface to the second volume of that series, he declared his intention to publish the works of Hippocrates and Galen, and of other writers famous in medicine. Unfortunately, Aldus did not fulfill his promise before his death in 1515, when the press passed to his partner and father-in-law, Andrea Asulanus (1451–1528). In the following years, Asulanus continued Aldus’s ambitious intellectual enterprise of printing scholarly editions of Greek authors, including the editio princeps of the known works of Galen in five volumes in 1525. This edition was the result of a collective effort of humanists and physicians working under the direction of the Italian professor of medicine, Giovanni Battista Oppizzoni of Pisa (ca. 1485–ca.1532).
Galen of Pergamum
ΓΑΛΗΝΟΥ Α’[-Ε’], Galeni librorum pars prima [-quinta]. Five volumes Venice: Aldus & Andrea Asulanus, 1525 The Lewis Stephen Pilcher Collection