David Langslow

I came to Manchester in January 1999. Before that, I was University Lecturer in Latin Philology and Linguistics in the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford (1984-1998). My doctoral thesis (Oxford, 1991) was on the origin and development of Latin medical terminology, and followed an MPhil (Oxford, 1984) in philology and linguistics with special reference to Greek and Anatolian, and a BA (Oxford, 1982) in Classics (Greek and Latin literature, languages, Greek and Roman history, comparative philology).

Since 1999, I have played a leading role in establishing, developing and sustaining the new department of classics and ancient history at Manchester, which in terms of student numbers is now one of the largest and most vibrant in the country. I have developed and taught BA and MA courses in the classical languages, Greek and Roman literature, history of medicine, and comparative historical linguistics. I have pursued research especially in the areas of ancient medical texts and language, and descriptive and social linguistics, including periods of intense activity in Germany and the US. I am one of the directors of the JACT Greek summer school (est. 1967), and founding project team leader of Manchester Classics for All (est. 2015), which is already bringing classics to fifteen state schools in the Manchester area. I am currently head of department and shall be head of division wef 30 Jan 2017.

One of my research projects this year concerns an ancient medical text in Latin. It is a long text (500-600 pages) in three ‘books’, or parts. The first two books set out diagnosis and treatment of diseases ordered from head to toe, from hair loss at the start of Book 1 to gout at the end of Book 2; Book 3 gives symptoms and treatment of various types of fever. Like many Latin medical texts, it is a translation of a Greek original. Often the Greek original is lost, but in this case it survives in two Greek works, the Therapeutics and the On Fevers by the Greek doctor Alexander, who lived around AD 500 and came from Tralles in what is now south-western Turkey. We know little of Alexander’s career except that in old age he accepted a high-level public medical appointment in Rome, which may explain why his Greek writings were translated into Latin soon after (even during?) his lifetime, and with less abridgement than is usual in Latin versions of long Greek medical works. Who made ‘the Latin Alexander’, when and where, we do not know, but it was something of a best-seller! It was widely copied both in its entirety and in various sets of excerpts, or ‘useful bits’. The Latin Alexander was one of the first medical books to be printed (first in 1504), even before the Greek original! In Greek and in Latin, Alexander remained central on European university syllabuses alongside Hippocrates, Aristotle and Galen until the 18th century.

The Latin Alexander interests me for three main reasons.

First, it has never been edited. That is to say, we have many hand-written copies (from the 8th to the 16th century), but no printed edition that attempts to capture the original version. No doubt the length and difficulty of the text explain perfectly why it has never been edited! Still, it is a challenge and a privilege to be at work on a first edition.

Secondly, the Latin Alexander is actually a compilation. Yes, it is very largely a Latin translation of the Greek Alexander, but it contains also chunks of other Greek works turned into Latin and inserted among the Alexander chapters. These include bits of Galen on facial and dental diseases, chapters on internal organs from Philagrius and Philumenus (which have not survived in Greek), and others of unknown origin. In other words, there are several different ‘voices’ in this single text.

Thirdly, the Latin itself is fascinating and raises several fundamental questions, including:

• how many translators were involved?
• did the translator(s) of Alexander translate also Galen, Philagrius, Philumenus, etc?
• how ‘correct’ or poorly controlled is the Latin of the various parts?
• what was the first language of the translator(s)? – Latin or Greek?
• are there features of the Latin that link the Latin Alexander with other Latin medical texts?
• are there features of the Latin that allow us to locate the translator(s) in space and time?

In other words, this is a project that satisfies both the historian of medicine and the linguistic detective!

Research interests and areas of research supervision:

Latin and Greek language, historical and literary aspects, including :

• LANGUAGE AND LITERARY STYLE
• LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY
• LITERATURE AND LINGUISTIC REGISTER
• LITERATURE AND DIALECT

The language, literature and social history of technical subjects in the ancient world, especially medicine and law
Latin and Greek linguistics, especially descriptive, historical and social linguistics including :

• THE HISTORY OF LATIN AND GREEK
• ARCHAIC, CLASSICAL, IMPERIAL AND LATE LATIN
• THE PRE-ROMAN LANGUAGES OF ITALY
• MYCENAEAN GREEK, HOMERIC GREEK AND THE GREEK DIALECTS
• INDO-EUROPEAN COMPARATIVE AND HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS