The medical history that one encounters in general reading usually mentions Galen to point out how he dominated medical thought until Vesalius, how tragic this was, and how many bone-headed things Galen believed. But why did Galen dominate medical thought for so long, if he knew no more than his contemporaries? This biography is well-written (it has many parenthetical asides, but I am in no position to criticize) and detailed and shows Galen's greatness. He was a man of his time, of course, and knowledge only accumulates over centuries (After all, how many ridiculous things do people believe today?), but he seems to have been a conscientious, observant and perspicacious physician. He wrote many books and some contain self-aggrandizing case histories in which he comes off looking like Sherlock Holmes. As a bonus, we learn a lot about second century Greece, Rome (it was filthy), Gladiatorial combat, Marcus Aurelius and more. Warning: The accounts of vivisection are very disturbing. ( )

An excellent read about an key figure in medical thinking and experimentation. Mattern does a good job using the available literature to piece together a chronology of Galen's life, as well as delving into inferences that can be made from his texts. The book is a little bit dry and occasionally choppy to read (paragraphs do not necessarily follow from one another), but it's well sourced and goes into the social context of Roman life and how it affected Galen in his practice, which I quite enjoyed. Overall a good read. ( )