Le cose prima delle parole: Galeno, il solecismo e l'atticismo (con una nota a in Hipp. Off. 3.3 = 18b.894.7-17 Kühn)

Galen’s reflection on linguistic correctness runs throughout his works as a recurrent feature. Within this framework, the notion of solecism is invoked on several occasions and with different nuances, though with some underlying constants. In particular, faithful to the importance he assigns to σαφήνεια – an ideal that leads him to lean towards a language comprehensible to all the Greek speakers (ἡ τῶν Ἑλλήνων συνήθεια) – Galen shows a certain tolerance towards such category of mistakes and, conversely, repeatedly criticizes those who make linguistic purity a central concern and wrongly assign more importance to words than to things that words should name. In this context, a key role – albeit often implicit – is played not only by some of his medicalrivals but also by the coeval Atticists, against whom it is likely that Galen’s lost treatise against those who criticize solecisms was largely directed. The article therefore offers a full examination of Galen’s discussion on solecism and linguistic correctness, and concludes with an appendix containing a re-examination of the transmission of the commentary in Hipp. Off. Med. and offering a new critical edition of a portion of it.